


The Force Remembers

by Keenir



Series: The Reyverse [2]
Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Can you go home again?, Childhood Memories, Don't Fail, Gen, History may well repeat itself, I'd rather kiss a wookie, Is it ever too late to worry about Force explosions?, One-Sided Hostility, Padawan, Quarren, The history lesson is drawn from the Star Wars Map book, Toydarians, Warning: abuse of Force powers, every organization's had a few bad recruiters - Phasma may've had one, seriously - Don't Fail, suddenly had a theory about Stormtroopers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-30
Updated: 2016-01-18
Packaged: 2018-05-10 07:09:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 21,089
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5576008
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Keenir/pseuds/Keenir
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Short term:  An AU in which Han lives, and both Rey and Finn are captured.  And that's the <strike>good</strike> better news.</p><p>Long term:  Rey spirals towards the Dark Side, while her few friends seek to save her...but will it set the galaxy aflame once more?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Light to the Dark

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: Normally, I don't read _**Star Wars**_ novels. Instead, I mined them for information over the years --(Mara Jade, adept in the Dark Side of the Force, opponent to Luke Skywalker  & later his wife, redhead)-- as before _The Force Awakens_ , I don't think I'd really written anything in the Star Wars universe.

Han fell.

He never struck the ground.

Instead, he was held in place long enough to see the person responsible for his being spared that fate - Supreme Leader Snoke, seated in a plain stone chair - and only then was Han slowly lowered the remaining dozen feet to the floor, where he lay.

"You can stop acting, Lord Solo.  You and I both know your wounds are not fatal."

Han sat up.  _One of the few upsides of being in carbonite as long as I was.  That and a good deal brokered by Maz._ "Still hurts," he snapped at Snoke.

"Pain is a teacher we have both studied under.  It is why I spared you the sting of your body slapping against the floor."

"Yeah, thanks for that, but why am I here?"

"Aside from gravity?" Snoke asked innocently and with a touch of amusement behind the question.

"Yeah, aside from gr- you know what, just show me the door.  I'll walk from here."

Snoke waved his hand at what to Han looked like a plain stone wall  (liberally covered in turgbat droppings), and then pronounced that, "There.  Now there will be no theatric explosion.  Your compatriots in the Rebellion thought to make this world explode, and they would have, at the cost of raining misfortune upon every nearby world, as well as upon yourself, your son, and your friends old and new."

"I already thanked you," Han reminded him.

"You did," Snoke agreed.

"So I'll ask again, where's the door?"

Instead of answering, Snoke leaned back in his chair.  "So many stars in the galaxy.  We are never far from another recharge.  And with the charge, we can repair what damage your friends have done."

"Yay you.  Gonna give yourself a medal?"

"That would waste time, Lord Solo.  As would the inevitable fight you would start, much as you wish to pick one with me," which amused Snoke.

"Any time," Han said.

"I will not waste my time, however much you seek to do so with your own," Snoke said.  "That is why I am returning your son to you."

"And why would you do such a nice thing like that?" Han asked, not buying it.

"Because your friends believe in redemption.  While you and I believe in history."

Han remembered telling Leia 'that kid's a little too much Vader.'

"You may leave, no matter what your decision," Snoke said.

And Han could feel the metaphorical snakes in his gut, at the reasoning for it:  "If I take him with me, he's in a position to strike the Rebellion at its heart.  If I refuse to take him with me, I have to face them myself.  That's why, isn't it?"

"That is a lesser reason."

"Lesser?  What's the greater reason, o bather in miseries?"

"I never considered you my enemy, Lord Solo.  You and I do share a mutual enemy, one whom I sense walking through the snowfields of this world.  I have no convenient excuse to send the younger Solo away - except you.  You are my instrument in this case."

"Oh I don't know, my kid seems happy here.  Very glad to stay, was the impression I got when he was stabbing me to death up on that walkway," Han said.

Snoke leaned forwards, all traces of humor and anything else, now gone from his face.  "Truly?  You would abandon your child to the tender mercies of Mara Jade herself?  Perhaps it is _you_ who is the starker Sith, and not I."

"I'm not a Sith," Han said, but his objection was only perfunctory, without heat behind it - his mind was already at work in trying to figure out what to do about Mara.

"Of course not; you only act as one.  Go," Snoke commanded, not with the Force, but with authority. 

A door opened behind Han.   "So that's where the door was," Han half-quipped as he headed out.

* * *

 Chewie made his way to the woods.  He knew Han and their new friends were deep in the New Order's nest, and it would take more firepower to extract Han and their friends than he had with him right now.  He kept the detonator on his person just in case - knowing the explosives could be removed and relocated, but never disarmed or rendered inert.  He moved swiftly through the woods and past the rocks, across the snows.

He was halfway to the Millenium Falcon when he stopped in his tracks.  There was someone nearby.  Not someone he liked.  A very bad feeling.

From behind him, a woman said "Exactly the wookie I was looking for. I'd believe in luck if I didn't know better."

 _Mara Jade of the Empire,_ Chewie recognized.  He waited for the familiar sound of a light saber being activated, readied himself to fight with everything he had.

"Turn around, Chewbakka, and slowly," Mara Jade instructed him.

Feeling that he did not have time to waste in mutual threats, Chewie gave a long and drawn-out call of an explanation of what he was up to.

"Did I hear the name 'Han' in there?" she asked.

 _Clearly she has not learned many more words._ Chewie nodded.

Mara gave a nod, then reached for something in her belt.  "This is a communication device I'm loaning to you."

To Chewie, it looked like a light saber, only far duller and without any lines or lights or details.  He caught it when she tossed it to him, whereupon he realized it was no light saber, as it felt nothing like one, neither in weight nor texture.

"It can be molded into most shapes by great power - be it muscular or Force," Mara informed him.  "It should help you."

Chewie muttered, but saw the point of it: it was severely annoying when working with someone who didn't even understand one word in ten that you said.  He shaped the material to form the sign for **Captured.**

"Han is captured?" Mara asked.

A nod.  **And friends also.**

 _You learn faster than most creatures do._   "By those New Order heretics, or by his Resistance friends?"

**New.**

Mara sighed.  _Oh well, at least he won't die of hearbreak._ "Then I'll offer you a truce, wookie.  I'm on my way in to destroy this world.  Help me, and I'll get your friends out.  Do you accept?"

**Destroy?**

"Yes, I destroy planet weapon," Mara enunciated.  _You used to be smarter than this...then again, you also were smart enough not to stroll about on hostile weapons._

Chewie gave a wookie smile, shifted the signing material to one hand, and with his other hand lifted the remote detonator.  And activated the bombs, laughing a word.

Mara knew few words in the wookie language, but she knew that one all too well:  _Kaboom!_


	2. From Darkness to Darkness

Rey dreamed. Or, more accurately, she remembered again...

_"Ahsoka, this is not the way."_

_From aboard the ramp to the ship_ Clever Falcon _, she looked at him, at her master's master. "How long?" Ahsoka Tano asked. "How long will you flail against the Empire? You are one of the few full Jedi left in the galaxy."_

_"So I am a prized captive. You know I will not let myself be captured," Obi-Wan said._

_"You miss the point again. Are you a youngling or an experienced Jedi, and if so I was wrong."_

_"Remind me, then. What is the point, Ahsoka?"_

_"Stop fighting and look around," she told him. "Or have you blotted this place from your memory?"_

_Obi-Wan cast his gaze about, at the dunes and sand and two suns in the sky - the third would rise in an hour, he knew. "I remember. I remember this place all too well."_

_"If you need absolution, elder, seek it with my master's son."_

_He nodded._ A sound plan. Almost too perfect. _"And what of you?" Obi-Wan asked her._

_"I will not raise a blade against my master," Ahsoka said. "But the Empire will never not know my fury," and she stepped back enough for the landing platform to begin raising back into the Falcon. "Farewell, Master Obi-Wan."_

_"Farewell, Ahsoka," he replied in kind. As the Falcon rose into the sky, he tasted his name, knowing he had worn it too long:_ Obi-Wan Kenobi is wanted by the Empire. Were they to find me, they would also find Anakin's child in short order. I am Kenobi no more. I am... Kenobi... Keno... Beno... Ben. Yes.

_As he shouted his new name at the departing Falcon, Rey screamed for them not to leave._

_"BEN KENOBI!"_

_"NO!"_

_"Rey? Yous awaken now?" uncle Jar Jar asked her from behind the curtain. "Yous oki-day?"_

_"I am, I am. I am," Rey said as her breathing came back under control. "Bad dream." Slipping into Gungan, "I remembered a past not my past." When he thought her scared or nervous, Uncle spoke a language he told her had been the language of some of his best friends in the galaxy. She preferred Gungan - nobody they met knew it well enough to lie in._

_"Again Force speaks to you, Rey. Again with Kenobi?"_

_"Yes. I thought it would stop."_

_Jar Jar was silent as he thought, considered._ Ani would be angry _, he worried. "A little more, when morning is here."_

 _"Thank you," Rey said, comforted enough that she knew she could sleep now._ Uncle Jar Jar makes the best soups; like his soup for stopping bad dreams _.  She smiled._

"Rey? Rey?"

She opened her eyes, and saw that she and Finn (whose voice had awoken her from the memory dream) were captives once more.

 _Caught before we could even get outside_ , Finn reflected. _Half-shoved to a containment cell, and the two of us each put against the binding boards, our wrists and ankles cuffed with heavy metallic rings, our heads snuggled in a gripcap to await whatever is heading our way._

"I hate this," Rey remarked.

"Me too," Finn said.

It was probably for the best that Finn didn't see the look which crossed Rey's face right before she sang, "Crack the spire open,"

_No offense, but while you're not a horrible singer, I've met banthas who carried a tune better. Or is that the point - to enrage the people who have us here, possibly for torture?_

"And birds begin to sing,

"Ha

"Ha

"Ha,

"A jolly feast,

"Serves jedi an' sith."

"That's not how it goes," Finn says.

"It is," Rey insists.

"Rey... Which of us was in a position to know that rhyme?"

"Both of you," Phasma says, standing in the doorway, "it seems. You're both correct. Her version was amended shortly before Lord Vader's death, to make it suitable for wider consumption. You are correct, FN-2187, that it is curious that she should know it at all. Or perhaps not." Phasma strode up to stand beside Rey's latched-in body. "Mesa memgula?" she asked Rey.

Rey narrowed her eyes at the question, needing no compulsion to answer that: "Meesa mguularey, _shakant!"_ spitting the last word at Phasma.

"So you're her," Phasma said. Finn knew what she sounded like when she was pleased, and he knew it was not a good thing right now. _You are the secret so many have sought...and you walked right into our base._

"I'm me," Rey stated.

"My master will be pleased."

"Are you so sure?"

Phasma simply looked at her a moment longer, then turned swiftly and departed.

Finn waited a little while after the doors had shut behind Phasma before he asked, "Who are you?" _So many surprises, one after another. That's who you are_.

"I told you," Rey answered. "I'm Rey."

"And its a great name," Finn said.

"Thanks," Rey said just before the doors re-opened, and Phasma came back inside.

Phasma pressed several keys, and something unlatched below Rey's board...which then rose a little over the floor.

"These things hover?" Rey asked Finn.  _Why didn't you mention that?_

 _I didn't mention it because its never a good thing when they hover._ "Where are you -" and Phasma administered a minor jolt of electroshock to the part of the brain which knocked him unconscious.

"Where are you taking me?" Rey wanted to know.

"My master wants a word with you," Phasma said.

_Did I want to know that?  Would I rather not have known that?_

"So you know, should you sway anyone we pass, I will kill them where they stand.  And you will watch," Phasma informed Rey in a manner entirely too casual for Rey's mind.

With that in mind, Rey kept her eyes open as they went to the receiving chamber where the highest-ranking members of the New Order (and special guest Rey) stood before a hologram of Supreme Leader Snoke.

"Greetings, Rey," Snoke said when Rey and her hovering board came to a stop on the pedistool before him.   "I have heard such interesting reports regarding you."

Rey said nothing, and neither did Snoke after that.   But she could **_feel_** something; _its like when Kylo Ren did that whatever-it-was to me, pushing against my skull and almost into my skull.  Only compared to the tidal forces Snoke's employing, Kylo Ren was a neap tide._

And then, as abruptly as he had started, Snoke stopped his Force probing.

"Intriging," Snoke said. "You were correct, my apprentice. This girl has the feel of a Gungan infant; which nicely explains my other apprentice's failure to extract adequate information from her.  How useful for her." _So this is what Lord Vader had secreted away...not merely one more Secret Project, but something which could have toppled anything he wished.  The bastard._

"And now for us - for you, my master," Phasma said.

"Perhaps. For now, induct her into the Ways. This girl is your Apprentice, Phasma," the hologram of Supreme Leader Snoke flicked a lone finger, and the restraints on Rey were not simply removed - they were torn harmlessly asunder and permitted to fall to the floor. To Rey, he said only, "Welcome to the New Order, child. Welcome home."

"This is not my home," Rey said, pulling herself off the thing that had restrained her.

"A truth for this place, I grant. But not for our side."

"I am not of the Dark Side."

This seemed to amuse Snoke: "It has not been long since you thought the Force was a tale told to children. And now you think to deny us. Then go," he said, and his hologram vanished.

"Stay," Phasma told her.

"No," Rey said.

"Then where will you go, mock-Gungan? Where do you think you can slide away to, that we cannot find you there?" Behind her mask, Phasma smiled. "Or come with me and learn how to control your power."

"I- I already know."

"You know how to sway Stormtroopers into obeying you. Any apprentice can do that. My master and I, we see you are capable of far greater feats. You will be known across the galaxy."

"I don't want to be known. I want to go home!" Rey said.

"To Naboo?" Phasma inquired politely. "Or to Jakku? No, no matter; I'll take you home."

Rey took a step back. "Why?"

"I haven't been there in many years - yes, it was once my home as well."   _And because where better to leave you no choice but to join the Dark Side?_

In a fit of hope, Rey asked her, "Are the Gungans back?"

"The ones who stayed," Phasma says, "are still asleep."

* * *

  Outside, Mara Jade was strolling through the woods, silently noting the increasing tensions in the Force as she neared the tunnel into the base - nearest the pit where he had seen Han, according to what she pieced together from Chewie's sign-making, fast learner as he was.  _Fools, abusing the Force to this degree,_ Mara thought, nearly wincing in sympathy to the Force.

And then she came into sight of Kylo Ren, who was standing atop the tunnel entrance.  The door was broken open, and much of the ceiling and upper floors had fallen into the tunnel, leaving little enough space to squeeze through.  _Later._ "Ah, little heretic," Mara said. "Let go of your master's apronstrings long enough to feel the cold?"

Leaping down from his perch to the snow-covered ground, "This time, I'll destroy you," Kylo promised.

"Men better than you have tried. Their bodies were left to litter the worlds they were stupid on."

Kylo activated his light saber.

"You have your mother's idiocy," Mara remarked, drawing her own light saber, but not activating it.

"Fight me," he said.

"You still don't understand the Dark Side."

"I understand more than when you faced me last time. Fight me," Kylo challenged her.

"No," Mara said, tapping her inactive light saber against her belt. Just for completeness, she yawned.

"You're afraid," Kylo said in sudden realization. "Why else would you refuse to fight? You know I'll win."

"And your father's arrogance too. You keep revealing more reasons why the New Order thinks so highly of you."

"Because, with me, they will rule the galaxy."

Mara snorted. "Your order has no order to it, nothing to appeal to the common people."

"Commoners deserve to be ruled," Kylo said. "They will fear us, and they will obey us."

"Another thing you lot fail to understand," Mara said, shaking her head. _Doesn't matter what species someone is; they can only be scared witless for so long, then it becomes a background sensation. And if its not the first thing on your mind, its easier to plot ways to end it_. "Besides the need for more than one space weapon in your arsenal."

"Our army grows at a faster rate than the Empire's ever did."

Mara shrugs. "We trained Stormtroopers to fight. You train them to die."

"And they die well, where we command them."

 _And what happens when you run out of True Believers?_ "They'll run. Its already begun, I hear."

"One man."

"Everything starts with 'one'. And you called it a man, not a Stormtrooper or a dead man walking. How utterly _Light_ of you."

Kylo grimaced at the mockery. "Very well. You don't want to fight me, that's fine. Your choice; I'm still going to kill you. Then they'll see further proof that I am the successor to my grandfather."

That was when Chewie reared up and struck Kylo with a suitably thick branch. The red light saber shut itself off before he hit the snowy ground.

"Who do you think taught me that tactic?" Mara asked rhetorically. _Focus and rage is all well and good,_ Mara knew, _but when you blind yourself to everything but your opponent..._

Looking down at the clubbed boy, Chewie made a remark.

Regardless of what the wookie had said, Mara nodded as she looked down at the kid. "Any Sith could've seen that coming a mile away."

"Chewie? Mara?" Han asked, sliding through the restricted space of the half-collapsed exit tunnel.

They turned to look at Han, whose boy lay at their feet.

"You're welcome," Mara said.

"You-" Han started to say, rushing towards her, stopping only when Chewie asked him a question.  "Yes, I'm alive."

In response to that, Chewie dropped the branch and shaped the language material into **Dead** , while vocally reminding his friend of just what he had seen from his vantage point.

"Dead?" Mara asked Han.

"Clearly not," Han told her. 

Chewie asked a question.

"No, its not a secret, but considering who she is and what she did and what she does, you and I both know better than to tell her."

 _Whatever secret they're talking about, I have more important things to deal with - save your precious secrets for later if ever._ "You still think I'm fluent in wookie?" Mara asked him tiredly.  Before either of them could answer, she asked them, "Which of you is going to stay here and keep the boy like this, and which of you is going inside with me to destroy the planet?"

 _Much as I hate the idea, I have to admit she's right: if Ben wakes up, he's more than a match for Chewie or for m_ e.

"You know what a Richter Magnet looks like?  Make sure all the Richter Magnets are aligned in the same direction."

Chewie raised a valuable point.

Han translated: "The more of the magnets are in one direction, the worse the destruction, right?"

"No," Mara said.   "If they aren't all in one direction - either direction, so long as they're all like that - then the planet will blow up."

"That's kinda the point."

"No, it will blow up regardless of how the Richter Magnets are aligned.  The difference is how many solar systems are destroyed by this planet's death.   Move the Richter Magnets  all to one direction, and nothing beyond this system dies."

"And if we accidentally miss one?" Han asked.

Mara gave him a look that said, very clearly and in no uncertain terms:  Do Not Do That.


	3. Stir the Darkness

Deep in the warren of tunnels and routes underground, Finn looked around the corner at all the Stormtroopers running to and fro in the search for, _for me?_   He and they weren't clones, but as Stormtroopers, they had inherited some words from them: those were Finn's _brethren_ out there, doing their jobs in full _comaraderie_ with one another, moving _in simpatico._   He looked back at Han and Chewie and asked, "I thought you blew the charges."  Han and Chewie had rescued him from his captivity, but he hadn't seen any signs of destruction, much less heard any detonations.

"This thing's a planet, kid," Han said.  "Past a certain point in distance, even the big explosions don't do more than make the floor wobble.  We just happened to find you outside of that radius.  Now come on, the thing's this way," and they got back to making their way to the Richter Magnets.

* * *

Outside, Mara Jade sat in the snow, waiting patiently for them to finish the missions.

As before, her eyes returned to the unconscious body of Kylo Ren - aka Ben Solo, aka High Knight Of Ren, aka Jedi Padawan - and she came to a decision.  "Need a pair of eyes in there, and yours will do just fine," Mara said to the young man.  Mock-reassuringly, she added, "And it won't hurt at all, because, you know, all life is connected."  _Which is what makes it possible to pick someone up and be a puppeteer._   She leaned over him and before she could even grip his spine -

"Hold it right there!" a Stormtrooper told her, several safeties being flicked off.  "Who are you?  What have you done with him?"

"Calm yourself," Mara warned, drawing strength to her throat first, then limbs, followed by -

"Identify yourself!" two Stormtroopers demanded.

 _Name and rank, name and rank, position, prominence..._   "I.  Am.  Phasma," Mara informed them, her Force-laden voice thick with persuasion. _I could be a Hutt, and your minds would be blind to the truth.  And since you aren't clones..._   "An imposter assaulted me, overpowered me and stole my uniform and helmet.  He - they? - may be within our facilities as we speak."

"Why would they not seek to escape?" that first Stormtrooper asked as one of his brethren called in a report, telling the base to be on the lookout for someone wearing Phasma's uniform and helmet.

She had no trouble adding an indignant tone: "They attacked me, Phasma of the Inner Circle, acolyte and apprentice of our Supreme Leader - who do _you think_ is their target?  Behold," Mara said, waving an empty hand at Kylo still on the ground, "our noble knight tried to stop them from harming me further, though at cost to his life.  Why are you still standing here?" she demanded of the Stormtroopers.

The leader Stormtrooper looked at his brethren and nodded, whereupon they marched back into the base (via whatever entranceway they had used to get here) to see to additional security for Supreme Leader Snoke and additional squads to hunt down the imposter on the loose.  To the person he thought was Phasma, "I'll stay and stand guard in case -"

Mara kicked, knocking him to the ground, where she used the Force to flick his mind into a slumber deep enough only she could awaken him.  That done, she looked at the partly-blocked tunnel entrance, at the light and shadow running around inside there.   _If the ants are going to swarm, stop them; if they're already swarming, don't fight it - let them serve your interests.  Sometimes the Jedi have the right idea: instead of reordering someone's sense of themselves and what they should be doing, simply convince them_ you're _someone else, and let their sense of duty force them for you.  Rather like what Solo had been doing, before and after joining the Resistance.  And what Obi-Wan Kenobi used to do, according to Luke's tales to me._

Mara looked down at Kylo Ren. "Consider yourself spared. For now."

And then she recalled a wager she had once made.  "Yes...now is as good a time as any to see which would win - pretense or reality," and she had the Stormtrooper wake up.  "The ground is slippery in places, 'trooper," Mara said.

"Yes," the Stormtrooper said, carefully standing up as quickly as he could.

"Our Supreme Leader has ordered a staggered evacuation of key personnel.  The Rebellion will not win this day, but that is no excuse to be incautious.  Pick up this knight, 'trooper."

"Yes," he said, shouldered his weapon, and came over and picked up Kylo Ren.

"In answer to what weighs in your mind, we are being transferred to a training facility.  Our spies have enabled us to recreate one of our enemy's key settlements - we have populated it with reenactors and some of the same double agents who live and work in the real place itself," Mara said.  "You and your unit have been promoted - a promotion contingent upon you proving to us that you can persuade these actors that you wish to join the Rebellion."

"Your will be done," the Stormtrooper said.  "In accordance with the Supreme Leader's."

"Yes," Mara said, and led him to the Millenium Falcon.

"And as part of the rehearsal for the ruse, we cannot use First Order vessels," he deduced.

"Very smart," she said of him.

* * *

 In that place between one normal space and another, Rey sat in the shuttle and tried not to look at the bright streaks of light.   She noticed Phasma was doing something-or-other over at the other chair, though Rey couldn't tell if it was a game to pass the time, or a tracking system following a probe or a problem.

Rey remembered the baby soups that Uncle Jar Jar would make to soothe her teething pains and her nightmares.   _Grownups sweat a special mucus from their necks, and use it to protect their children, she knew._ _Young Gungans could survive baking drought and freezing ice and all but the harshest Force strikes, and the mucus was home to much of that immunity._

"Is this going to be a long trip?" Rey asked.

"Take a nap," Phasma suggested.  "I'll get us there."  And then she paused, and from the sound of her voice, Rey suspected the woman was smiling: "And if you're thinking of grabbing the controls and doing anything to me, I'll tell you now that this ship is on autopilot."

"So it'll land on my home."

"It is programmed to _crash_ on your world," Phasma corrected.  "And with so much fire."

 _Good strategy,_ Rey thought.   _But its still going to be a long trip._

* * *

 

"We don't need a matching set of Stormtroopers," Mara muttered.  "The one person we needed, you lot failed to find.  One consolation's that the First Order nest likely lost her as well."  And she knew Han wouldn't go haring off chasing after little girls - _no money in it, and it'd piss off his wife._

Standing in a little-used corridor aboard the Millenium Falcon, and feeling it leaving normal space, Mara remembered...

_"Join me," Luke had asked her, holding her hands in his.  From where they stood, you could see the ancient ruins of Forever, the dragonbacked river, and the shuttles they had used to get here._

_She looked at him, first considering, and then shaking her head.  "As you said, no.  And for the same reason."_

_Luke nearly frowned, but then he remembered the moment she was referring to:_ when my father asked me to join him.  _"This isn't like that," Luke said._

_"No?" Mara asked.  "You aren't asking me to stay with you - and in so doing, break with all the people I know, all the friends and enemies I have, all the places I can go?   One world or an empire, the principle is the same."_

_He gave a sad nod.  "I know.  But I had to ask.  I needed to."_

_She nodded, understanding.  "I know."_ We ever did best when we removed any chance of assumption and presumption, even if it meant questions like that.

_"Then, since you're leaving, there's something I need to ask of you."_

_"Of course you may ask," Mara said._

_Luke said, "I know that after... **he** died, you went out looking for someone, on his orders.  I need to you find them.  I have a feeling they're the person we all need found."_

_Raising an eyebrow at him, "What makes you think that I ever stopped looking?" she asked him in jest, though she truly never had stopped._

...and Mara leaned against the wall of the Millenium Falcon, drawing an unsteady breath.  She lowered herself to a crouch, staring at the opposite wall.

She stayed there, unmoving, unresponsive, until, some time later -

"Can I ask you something?" Finn asked.

Mara looked up at him, considered narrowing her eyes and making wobbly gestures with her fingertips - then dismissed that in favor of saving that for somebody who had actually annoyed her.  "I'm not the best person on this ship to talk to about relationships," Mara said.

One of Finn's hands went right to his head, and his eyes reacted exactly as she suspected he would.  "I...no.  I wasn't about...How?"

"I didn't read your mind," she assured him.  "You went through nervousness, apprehension, hope, and concern in the ten seconds after you asked if you could ask me something.  People are very easy to read if you know how."

"But you used the Force," Finn said.

"Barely.  If I used the Force, you'd know it.  Like you'll know it if you don't get to the point.  What were you going to ask me?"

Finn swallowed.  "I'm a Stormtrooper  -  FN-2187.  I did my job, and I did great at it, except when it came time to march into a village and I...I'm a traitor.   That's all I have to offer someone that does everything effortlessly.  They're so calm and cool and collected and they know exactly what they want and what to do.  I don't."

"If you're referring to Phasma, I'll put you out of our misery now."  Mara added, "If you're not, sit and listen," and Finn dropped to a crouch with great speed for someone with no Force to him.  "Since you turned traitor to the First Order -"

"How -?"

"I work for the Empire," Mara reminded him.  "Had you betrayed us, your name would have come across my desk, and I might be the one hunting you.  Now, to continue my question:  since you rightly left the First Order heretics, have you done anything?"

"I did.  I got captured," Finn said.

"Hard to be captured if you aren't going somewhere.  Was anyone with you?"

Finn nodded.

"Did they accompany you anywhere?  Did you do anything during the journey or upon arrival where you were heading?"

Another nod.

"Then you have friends who will speak on your behalf," Mara said.

"And if she was hunting you," Han said at the doorway, "your friends would be in danger from her."

Mara shrugged.  "They would have information about you, and if I couldn't speak to you, I would make do with them in the meantime."

"Ain't the Empire swell?" Han snarked.

"Thank you," Finn said to Mara, then retreated to the quarters Han had earlier told him to use during this mission.

After Finn had gone, "I did warn him," Mara said.

"Well, in present company, you're not a bad pick," Han granted.  "Leia says hi, by the way."

"You're taking me to her, aren't you?"

"Why ask questions you already know the answer to?"

Mara couldn't answer that.  _She'll undoubtedly think I know where Luke is, and will demand I reveal what I know...and she really should know better by now._

"If it means anything, its not because you're on board."

"Ben's why," Mara nodded, understanding. _The Stormtrooper is a bonus; he's decided his role is of a defector.  Possibly a meme loose in the First Order's training system?_

"Anywhere you'd like to be dropped off?" Han asked.

"No," Mara said, standing, "it has been too long since I was a guest of your Rebellion."

"Why do you keep calling it mine?"

"An army marches on its stomach and on its supplies, Lord Smuggler," Mara said, leaving for her own quarters - the containment cells.

Behind him, Chewie asked a question.

"Definitely tons of fun when Leia finds out who else we brought home," Han agreed.


	4. Gaze into the Darkness

As the Millenium Falcon returned to normal space and began to prepare to reenter the atmosphere of the Rebellion's onplanet base...

Inside the ship, Mara Jade held in her groan.  _One person stewing in their regret.  Another holding hope with armor-padded gloves.   The kid with anger enough to...wait, that's not a Skywalker._   She frowned, but wiped her face featureless when they landed.

"Let me do the talking," Han told her, sticking his head in the room long enough to say that.

"Like your wife'll let that happen," Mara quipped.

As he stepped out of the Millenium Falcon, he saw Leia standing there, waiting for him, right next to Admiral Akbar.  "Miss me?" Han asked.

"We were not firing upon you," Akbar said, getting the joke.

"Well?" Leia asked, wanting to get the answer out of the way - _my nerves deserve that much, after everything I've put them through._

"We got him," Han said, Chewie walking around him.

To Han, at the distance he was at, it sounded almost like Leia said "Oh good" though he was sure she'd deny it if anyone was fool enough to ask her to repeat it.

"And," Han said.

"And??" Leia repeated.  "Tell me you didn't find another rathta puppy." 

 _Those things are cute up til they grow an eye, then they turn carnivorous._   "You might wish I had."

Leia groaned.  "Who did you find?"  _Was it Lando?  Because much as I love him, I'm not in a mood to have him on my base right now._

"Guards," Han called them over.

 _When_ you _start calling for armed personnel to surround your position, it never bodes well.  And I don't think this is entirely because our son is back.  Is it?_

Han looked behind himself and said, "Okay, you can come out now."

Their son walked down the ramp, not looking at all happy about it, despite how he strode as though he owned the place.  Leia rushed up and stopped short of him - and he stopped to avoid either of them crashing into the other - and couldn't hug him.  _You're evil.  You're my son.  You're our enemy.  I made you.  You betrayed us.  You're carrying on a family tradition._

Anything further was stopped when she saw who was not far behind him.  Scant inches beyond the reach of either of their legs' best kicks was -

"Mara Jade," Leia said.

"The bitch herself," Leia's son said.

 _We forget how much you heard,_ she thought, as she noticed Ben's hands bound by some clay-like material.

"Its me," Mara said, letting the remark slide off her like snow off a tauntaun.

Leia stepped aside, and let her son be taken into custody by Chewie and a cadre of guards.  The other guards took up positions on Leia's left and right, forming an arc.  "You're either very bold or very stupid to show up here."

"You're welcome," Mara said.

"She captured Ben," Han said. 

"What?" Leia asked.

"An exchange of services," Mara said.  "Ergo, I return your son to you."

Leia glared at Han.  _What did price did you put on our son's life?_   "You and I are going to talk."

"Please don't make me watch this time," Mara asked of them.

"Look, we forgot you were chained up there.  It was an honest mistake," Han said.

"Riight."  Feeling behind her with the Force, _So the boy's going to stay aboard the ship?_   Shrugging, "I am cooperating as per the Cease-Fire agreement," Mara said to Leia.

"Nice of you," Leia said. "Though I still hold that it was a mistake," motioning for the guards to take Mara's weapons.

Not stopping them, "You've made your feelings quite transparent, General Skywalker. Had you won the day, I and my colleagues would have been shot on sight."

"You'd have been spared." _You meant too much to Luke, back before he walked off to some unknown corner of the galaxy._

"Because sole survivors of conflagurations are never dangerous, are we, Alderaani?"

Leia narrowed her eyes. "Even your late master knew better than to call me that," she informed Mara.

Now disarmed of all bladed and explosive weaponry, Mara had only her inactive lightsaber on her person - a weapon which one Rebellion guard reached for -

"Touch that, and I will break your neck without moving," Mara said calmly.

The other guards raised their rifles, again taking aim at her.

Mara raised an eyebrow. "I warned them, General; which is more than perhaps I should."

Leia made a face. "Stand down," she told the guards, who hesitated. "Now," and they obeyed. To Mara, "Do you give me your word that you won't use your lightsaber or the Force while you are in our custody?"

"I, Mara Jade, Imperial agent, do give my word and vow of good behavior, to you, Leia Skywalker, Leia Organa, Rebellion General. I do this in accordance with the terms set forth in the Kashyyyk Cease-Fire."

"I, Leia Organa of the Skywalker line, leader of the Rebellion, and General, do accept your offered word and vow, Mara Jade of the Empire."

"But General..." one of the guards said, objecting.

"If our 'guest' violates it, if she doesn't do what she promised," Leia assured her people, "then the Cease-Fire's no longer applicable, and we can get rid of the what shreds of Empire are left."

Mara said, "True, though records tell us that the Emperor held the same opinion of the Rebellion - and we are now, the same size as your Rebellion when Alderaan was destroyed."

"Put her in one of the interview rooms," Leia told the guards. "And remember that if anybody touches her, she's within her rights to tear your arm off."

* * *

"Hey," Poe said, finding Finn inside the Millenium Falcon, _even though everyone else is either in custody or stretching their legs and enjoying themselves onplanet._   "You okay, Finn?"

"Fine," Finn said.

"You know the old saying about lies, right?"

"No.  Don't know."  _Don't know a lot of things.  How to save Rey, is one of them._

"Lies created the Empire," Poe quoted.

Finn looked skeptically at him.

"Yeah, I know, its banthapoo, but it had to come from somewhere."

"The Empire's gone," Finn said, his voice telling Poe that he really didn't have an opinion on that.

Poe snorted.  "Who told you that?"

"The Empire still exists?" Finn asked.

Poe gave a little gesture with his fingers, that when he saw Finn didn't understand it, tried again with the rest of his hand - which Finn also didn't understand.  "Eh, technically, its still around." _Though its debateable how much of it isn't just Hutt domain._

"Then the First Order lied that the Rebellion brought down the Empire and killed the Emperor and Darth Vader?"

"That part, they got right," Poe said.   "After the Emperor was killed - this was back when I was a kid - some of the Grand Moffs and other high-ups went their own ways, trying to keep little flickers of Empire going, even if it was just on one world.  And one by one, the Rebellion got rid of them too; the Republic did too, after it was revived.

"But General Organa..." Finn asked, unsure how to state what he'd seen.

"Some folks say that Agent Jade out there - that's not an official title, by the way, that's just based on how she's an agent of the Empire, or she was, at least - that she's an ambassador from the only part of the Empire that the Rebellion or the Republic has allowed to survive."

"But why?"

"Can't have a rebellion without something to rebel against, right?" Poe asked with a touch of humor.  "But me, I've got a theory that's a lot simpler, and it doesn't really matter how much or how little of the Empire survives.  'Cause it all circles back 'round to General Luke Skywalker, lead Jedi of the Rebellion...pretty much the only Jedi for along time.  The First Order talk about him much?"

Finn nodded.  "He showed where the Empire was weak, and he killed the Emperor and Darth Vader."

"There's so many stories about what happened to those two, and for those of us who weren't there, we have to decide who to believe," Poe said.  "Anyway, when General Luke Skywalker left - left the Rebellion, left the Republic, practically left the galaxy, some say - he left behind friends and family and people he trusted.  But the two who were closest to him... one was a droid, named R2D2; the other was Mara Jade."

"So its kindness," Finn deduced.  "General Leia doesn't want to alienate one of the last links to her brother, even if Agent Jade is an enemy." _There's got to be a way that that information can help us.  I just can't see it yet.  I have to see something, some way..._

Poe nodded.  "That's my theory, anyway."

* * *

"The Empire is dead.  Your Empire's hobbling along," she added quickly.  "The Republic is thriving."

"Like the previous one was," Mara said.

"You got something to say?"

"The Jedi _then_ prided themselves on balance, my master taught me.  He spoke of how they were overjoyed that he would bring balance to the Force." _Luke wanted to find a solution acceptable to both sides, some way to have balance without either side overwhelming each other again, without suffering and war._

"And look how that turned out," Leia said.  "Clearly balance isn't everything."

"What doomed them, doomed us, and will doom you," Mara said.

"We're doing perfectly well, thank you."

"Look at the composition of your Rebellion, at how many of its members were disaffected from being turned down for contracts, whose rivals had governmental favor, who never rose as high as they aspired to.  Their numbers were not the entirety of your movement, I grant you, but I would wager my saber that they were not an insignifigant number, either."

"You always guess right, where your saber's on the line," Leia agreed.  "And they helped."

"The same sort of people sided with the Empires of times past, when the transition was less than smooth from a Republic."

"Round and round, we kill you, you kill us, and so on, and so on," Leia said.  "You've said all this before.  As have I."

"So what do you propose?" Mara asked, mildly curious.

"You can join us, you can retire.  You've got a lot of options."

"I'm living my option right now.  And I didn't join Luke, and I have less reason to join you."

"And retirement?" Leia asked.

"'There are always two' doesn't stop, even if I retire.  If anything, it shortens my life expectancy."

"You poor thing," Leia said dryly.

"Thank you kindly," Mara Jade said to Leia Organa.  "And congratulations on your son rising so high in the latest heresy."

"He'll get better," Leia said.

"We do hope.  But it was an unexpected twist to your victory."

"Then thank you for admitting we won."

"I never disputed that," Mara reminded her.  "Nor that the Empire could have crushed the First Order underfoot by now."

"So you say," Leia remarked.  "I seem to recall the Rebellion doing quite well in never being wiped out."

"You were not our only concern.  Heresies were another."

"Heresies like the First Order?"

"Like them, but not them themselves," Mara said.  "That the First Order arose at all, can be laid at your feet, General.  Or was there someone who forbade you from telling what happened to your brother in that final confrontation?"

"I admit we weren't as swift with releasing the story of what happened there, not as prompt as I'd have liked," Leia admitted.  "That does not make it our fault."

"'Know your enemy', General.  The First Order holds that your father died without regret and with unchanged loyalties."

Leia's fists tightened.

"To them, Lord Vader is an exemplar, the paragon of power in the Force.  With the relics they've stolen - all the pieces of my master and his possessions - they're confident of an assured victory.  And they think it will be theirs."

"If they think he's such a paragon, why didn't he kill the Emperor sooner?" Leia quipped.

"Ask your son. General," Mara said.  "I _study_ heresies and _quash_ them.   Your child _lived_ as part of one."

"My son became a Sith," Leia all but spat at her.

"The Sith teach patience and cunning, stealth and intellect.  The First Order's idea of the Force is a blunt instrument to abuse.  Now, did your son join the Order from a wish to be a Sith, or out of desire, or simple rebellious act which has calcified into habit?"

_You know the answer as well as I do, for as often as I've gone over this with you and Han and Chewie and...and nobody else is left.  Aside from C3PO, who shies away from topics like this; and R2D2, who doesn't answer anyone anymore._

After that, silence fell between them - as usually happened when one was in the custody of the other - for a good long while. Well, long-ish.

* * *

_**Yes, my apprentice.  Move swiftly, lest the opportunity be lost.** _

* * *

 

Mara's nostrils flared, her pupils constricting.

Raising an eyebrow, "What's gotten into you?" Leia asked, concerned.  "I've seen you go days being droid-still, and now you're figiting before a full hour went by."

Mara made a momentary face.   _Next to none would have noticed.  Still, fitting that it would be caught by someone who knows me as much as you do._   "History is about to repeat, and you want that no more than I do.  And in this, your husband shoulder's the rancor's share of the blame."

"Wouldn't surprise me.  What's he done this time."

"His desire not to disappoint you, may be resulting in the most powerful Sith since..."

"Vader, right?" Leia figured.

"I was thinking of Plageis or Bane.  Though my master was counted in that elite number."

"And how's that going to happen?   Which part of history?"

"A day to which there are no living witnesses," Mara said.  "My master spoke to me of it only once, and perhaps his master spoke to Luke and to you about it:  before my master took the name Vader, he was training to be a Jedi."

Leia nodded, having known that part.

"During his training, he learned that his mother had been killed.  Against orders, he returned to that planet, and killed everything that lived with the individuals responsible for his mother's death.  To avenge your grandmother, your father slew those responsible, and all they loved," Mara said.  "In my master's words, 'if there had been doubt that I would turn to the Dark Side, that doubt was extinguished on that day.'  And now Rey is about to relive that day for herself."

"She's from Jakku," Leia said.

"A parched world, like where my master came from.  A world with men one step or less removed from being slavers like the ones who once owned my master.  A place where those she calls friends, were trapped living there even when she was able to leave.   Consider, remember your rage, your palpable anger when you were forced to watch the destruction of your world; how would you have felt, had you escaped Alderaan and were elsewhere when it was destroyed?"

 _I probably would have gone to the Dark Side too, though I would've denied it.  Being there, watching it happen, made me able to focus my anger on Vader, made me a better rebel._ Leia was concerned a great deal, and that amount kept increasing; but there was one niggling question left: "How do you know this?"

"The girl Rey was taken from the most secure place the First Order possess," Mara answered plainly.  "If you wanted someone to lash out, to seek revenge, where would _you_ take them?"

"Jakku," Leia said.  Standing up, "You're coming with us."

"Anyone would think you trust me, with a remark such as that," Mara said, a smile in her voice but not on her face.

"I'd rather have you in front of us, than behind us, is all.  And its not like you'd turn down a chance to take down whoever stole away with Rey, am I right?"

Mara nodded.

* * *

Han was standing outside of a containment cell that Kylo Ren was standing inside of, when a guard came up to Han and handed him a message.  The guard left, and Han looked at Kylo and said, "Well, Junior, looks like I'll be back later."

"Don't call me Junior," Kylo said.  Then, less harsh, "Let me go with you," Kylo Ren said to Han.

"And why should I do that?" Han asked.

"I know where Phasma will go, where she is taking Rey, and what she will do to her."  _And if Phasma can't get Rey to commit acts worthy of the Order, then she'll enrage Rey until she kills - no, not kills - til she_ slaughters _Phasma._

"So does Mara."

Kylo sighed. _Valid point, destestible as it is._ "Fine.  Don't take me along - take your other son."

"My what?"  _He's dead._

* * *

"People say that only ugly people cover their faces," Rey said after a long while of silence between the two of them.

 _You no more believe that, than I do - I can hear it in your voice,_ Phasma mused; deciding that using the Force would be redundant in this instance. _But let me put you to the test,_ and Phasma removed her helmet.

Rey knew how people thought, and what they saw as valuable - and while Phasma didn't strike her as the most beautiful creature in the galaxy, she also didn't doubt that a lot of people would have seen Phasma as appealing and exotic and attractive. _But perhaps that's why,_ Rey mused, having seen what happened to women who were seen as beautiful, and thus coveted and given a high value. _That's not the only reason why **I** wore a mask._


	5. Light shudders and Darkness spreads

The switches were flicked back.

That world detonated.

As Han and Chewie had been warned, it killed the nearby star systems. And that was merely the physical effect. The Force was shoved away like an unwanted, unloved blanket.

* * *

On the Rebellion's base, Han and 'Kylo Ren' - Ben - didn't feel it at all.

Han wasn't sure what to talk to Ben about, and he certainly wasn't about to say that Ben's mom had told Han to stay behind 'and talk to him.  Get him to understand.'  _What can I say now, that I didn't say before?_

* * *

 Leia felt a wave of passing pressure, more in rippling across her spine and mind, than the lungs or gut, which told her that it was Force and not an explosion or other concussive. She looked over at Mara... _not as quick to recover from that, as you are from most things. Reassuring._ Noticing Mara was actually looking at her, Leia nodded and said "Huh."

Mara snarled. "You felt that, but not all the lives snuffed out on the Death Star."

Poe pretended he didn't hear that - same as when anyone else disparaged the Death Star - either of them.

Leia considered saying, 'I'm stronger now than I was then' and didn't, feeling that it wouldn't be welcome.  _Understood.  I imagine even old Ben Kenobi was irate when he experienced the thing he spoke of - those thousand voices crying out and silenced in an instant. So I'll let that one pass._

For her own part, Mara Jade's concern was not for anyone on the ship. _Stupid little... Its always annoying when the enemy realizes how good an idea your lie was, and makes it a reality. A staggered evacuation, but enough left on the weapon to spark deaths on every world within reach._ "Where are we?  I don't feel anything around us," she added after a moment.  _Take that as a peace offering if you want; even those strong in the Force, can experience shock._

Looking at the screens, Leia said, "We're... We're not far from Maz's place. Whatever that was, it didn't knock us away too much."

"We can make up the time and distance, right?" Finn asked, uneasy at not being able to help Rey.

Both women nodded.

* * *

 Phasma's ship was far closer to the Starkiller when it exploded, and thus she felt a harsh stinging for a moment, before feeling something thrown up to shield - _no, to insulate_ \- against the pain.

As her ship spun through the light-years and parsecs, Phasma could feel the memories strengthening this Force framework and insulation. It was tough as bantha jerky, but she had time...

_It was Rey's young adolescence. On Jakku..._

_"You needs to eat," Uncle Jar Jar said when Rey put the dish of reconstituted food in front of him._

_Taking her seat, Rey said, "You need it more, Uncle. I can go a day without it."_

_"No," he said, holding up a heavily-wrinkled hand. "You eat. You needs it."_

_Rey just looked at him for a minute or more, before she admitted, "I can't lose you. I lost everybody else, and you're all I have left."_

_"Rey," Jar Jar said, a smile creaking his weather-beaten beaklike mouth._

_"Yes?"_

_"You never lose me. I always being with you, never not. I have no Force, but I have even better."_

_"You do?" Rey sniffled._

_"You always remember, everything always, Rey," Jar Jar said; it was at once praise and a fact._

_"I do. But..."_

_"Hard to remember though, if you hungry," and he handed her the plate she'd given him._

_Rey handed him back one of the nutrition lumps, and he ate that, while she ate the rest. She watched as he looked toward the window, and wondered how much he actually saw, and how much was remembering the sandless spaces of Naboo._

Aboard Phasma's ship, as they tumbled back into normal space, still moving entirely too fast, Rey sniffled and pulled the insulating memories back into herself.  "Been a while since that happened."  _An excellent reason to always wear gloves after_ that _falling-down onworld._

Phasma looked at the readouts on what controls hadn't been fried by the Force-collision that had knocked them off course... "Entering Jakku orbit. I told you I'd take you home."  _Hadn't thought it would be a crash landing  --  I warned of it, though that was to ensure compliance._   "We need to fix this.  Are you with me?"

Rey looked at her, eyes meeting eyes.  "We're nots friends," Rey said, her accent slipping for a moment.

"Of course not," Phasma agreed, and the two of them got to work repairing what damage had been done - _thank you, O Emperor - or was Hux foolishly responsible for this occurance?_ \- while also steering to avoid crashing into the sands.

* * *

 Mara Jade stretched out on the couch; the wookie blood there had long since dried and was starting to flake.  She left her little flask on the table, and didn't let her eyes close halfway like an apprentice might while feeling the Force; her eyes remained open and alert as she permitted her curiosity to go exploring...

Almost for habit's sake, she started with Leia, reaching out - and smiling when she was slapped away like a naughty child, as expected. She moved on to Poe, and saw nothing she hadn't expected to see - _plenty of strong friendships.  Good.  You'd give a Jedi indigestion._   Next was Finn, and her eyes widened slightly: _dozens of friends, thousands of men and women who had his back; abandoned and betrayed them, leaving him with only the pilot he escaped with, the pilot he had thought died helping him; Poe and Rey are your only friends now, are they?_

Mara shook her head.  _Even the late Emperor couldn't have arranged a more perfect potential padawan's rise._

"Bad news?" Poe asked her, taking a seat on the other side of the couch.

"Thoughts," she replied.

"There's something you're not telling them," Poe said to Mara, as Finn and Leia were driving the ship.

"That is the way of things," Mara shrugged, taking a drink.

Poe looked at her, figuring he could die at any minute in his line of work, and that didn't change if you were trying to work out what angle someone like Agent Jade was playing.  "You know Rey," he said finally.   And he figured she was going to deny it.

But, after a minute of consideration, "I had heard of her," Mara Jade said.

"From people confessing to you, I imagine."

"A master does not confess to his apprentice," she said, her tone warning him to tread carefully here.

"Vader?" Poe asked, which for him _was_ softly-softly.

"He spoke of an infant he took to the world where he had grown up as a man and a Jedi, where he was an apprentice himself, and where he fell in love.  My master gave the child to one of the few people who had never betrayed him.  Rey would have grown up in the royal Palace of Naboo, under the care of someone my master trusted enough to promote to Planetary Governor."  Mara glanced over at him.  "Your mother never mentioned her?"

Poe shrugged.  "She may've told me at one point that 'Lord Vader has a child'...but in hindsight for most of my life, I figured she meant," and the tilt of his head indicated The General - Leia Organa, daughter of Darth Vader.  "And then General Organa hired me - thank you for that - and ushered in a balanced era and I earned my wings on at least a dozen craft."

 _Thank me all you like  - she_ kept _you employed, and that was none of my doing: it was your own hard work._   Aloud, Mara only snorted.

"Amused or offended?" Poe asked half-seriously.

Instead of answering that, she told what her reaction was to: "Balance."

"Without the balance brought by a fair Republic -"

Mara shook her head.  "'Balance' ha!" bitterly.  Soberly, "They only wish for balance when _they_ are the ones underfoot.  When Jedi ruled, they never wished for parity or any other balance."

"There was the prophecy," Poe said.

"Yes," Mara granted.  "And yet everyone was surprised that he became Darth Vader and did all that he did." _What were they expecting?_

"Yeah."  _Whereas everyone would be surprised at my loyalty, if they knew where I came from,_ Poe knew.  _That wasn't where you were going with your comment, but its where my mind went._

After a while, Mara confessed quietly, "There are nights," she admitted, "where I wonder if the prophecy referred not to the rise of Darth Vader, but to his last moments, when he returned his loyalties to that of his family.  I wonder if the galaxy had to right to know that he had changed, or if it merely needed to know."  She sighed.  "It was a bad narrative, crediting Luke with decapitating the Empire," Mara said. Raising her eyes to roughly where Finn and Leia were talking in the next room, "But I recognize it kept the holdouts and the diehards behaving themselves... until he up and left," her voice telling him that she too had been stung. _And with Luke gone, the First Order came out of hiding. And then they grew strong enough to go looking for him._

 _And now we're all looking for you, Luke._  

* * *

 Phasma and Rey came across the emissaries buzzing around a ship which had only fallen less than fifty feet down onto the sands of Jakku.  _Coming in for a landing when the wave struck._

They were short-trunked and long-winged, every one of them in crisp suits. Roughly a dozen of them.

"And you are?" Phasma inquired.

"The Republic sent us," one of them said; his namebadge read _LAL._   "In this matter, we are its eyes and ears."

Phasma wasn't sure whether to be impressed or annoyed that the Republic had picked members of _this_ race to represent it on Jakku - the world where the Empire had fought one of its last, most stubborn battles.

Said another of the Republic's agents, whose namebadge read KRIKET, "We're here for Unkar Plett.  The Senate wants him to face judgement for his crimes.  I was sent to be the magistrate overseeing it."

_And the others - security, family, or something else?_

Rey smiled.  "Follow me.  I know exactly where he is."  And she led them over several dunes and around a few ruins of Republic and Imperial warships.

\----

"Come to return my ship?" Unkar Plett asked Rey when she and Phasma and the dozen fliers of the Republic arrived at his place.

"It wasn't yours to begin with," Rey informed him.

"It was mine when it ended."

 _Not interested in this stuff._ "Unkar Plett, for your crimes," read the Republic's magistrate, "death.  However, it has not escaped our notice that you kept Jakku from anarchy.  Therefore, we amend your punishment to that of house arrest in the Palace of Naboo."

"No," Rey said.  She said it again, this time thrusting the word out, not letting her lips shape a silent word this time.

"It is okay," another Republic agent said to Rey, thinking this would reassure her, "nobody lives there -- the place would be a museum if anybody kept it clean."

 _That was where I learned to walk_ , Rey knew.  She remembered that _It was where Uncle Jar Jar lived when he was granted custody of me._    "You won't be taking him there."

"Nobody's been there since they kicked out the Empire's lackey," said Kriket.

Phasma watched all of this unfold, her stance as casual as someone as long-trained as she could be: at ease and able to launch three kinds of attack from where she stood.

"Give him to me," Rey said to the Republic's agents, feeling warmth in her spine.

That earlier agent shook his head, little trunk wobbling.  "He's coming with us.  Stand aside, miss."

"No," Rey said quietly.

Looking to Phasma, "Miss, could you tell your friend here that its in her best interests to get out of our way?"

"You want me to lie?" Phasma asked.  From where she stood, she could feel the indignation boiling, a palpable thing that needed only the right spark.  _And these fools seem about to give it to her._   It was like watching a play being acted out, unfolding before her.

"I will not be moved," Rey said firmly.  "And you will not pass, not so long as you have him."

"No?" an agent asked Rey.  "Miss, we're thankful for your assistance, but if you could step aside, this is a Republic matter."

Rey narrowed her eyes.

Another agent stepped between them.  Her name badge read WETTA.  "A citizen of the Republic may lodge a protest and issue a suit against Unkar Plett.  Are you a citizen?"

"Stand aside, and give him to me," Rey said.

"Oh dear.  A Force user."

"Or a fool," said the first agent.

"You aren't moving," Rey said, frowning.

"Now you notice?" he chuckled.  "We are Toydarians.  Sith or Jedi, it doesn't matter - your mind tricks won't work on us."

 _If you think that's all the Force is, you are sorely mistaken, and will be truly sore if you survive this,_ Phasma mused with a smile upon her lips.

Unkar Plett's face was not designed for sneering, but he managed a pretty good approximation of it, aiming it at Rey.  "Know when you're beaten, girl."

Rey's eyes narrowed.

Phasma felt a spark, an uptick in the flow of Force around Rey.

"You told my father that," Rey recalled.  Remembered Unkar Plett's grip on her arm as he pulled her away from the shriveled Jar Jar lying on the sands.  She could feel a cool breeze on her skin, _and there was a breeze on that day too._ "He wasn't dead."

Uncomfortable, despite being surrounded by Republic agents and in their protection, Unkar Plett said, "Near enough.  You were alive.  He wanted you alive."

"We could have saved him.  _ **I**_   could have saved him," Rey stated, closing her hands into fists, even with him not being close enough to hit, however much she wanted to.

"If you're done crying over the past," one Republic agent told her with some sympathy, "we have to go."

"No you don't," Rey said, her eyes not narrowed as much now.

All sympathy was gone now, replaced with amusement.  "Are you really going to try commanding us again?"

The other agents chuckled, enjoying this.

Unkar Plett chuckled with them, though his was tinged with fear, a flavor Phasma knew well, though not from his species.

"You shouldn't worry about that," Rey said.

"Good, we -" that agent started to say.

Phasma interrupted him with, "There's only one question worth asking."  To Rey, "What do you want?"

 _Were you not listening?_   Rey raised one hand, one finger extended, and said, "Him!" as she thrust it, pointing at Unkar Plett, though she never touched him.

The bolt of electricity from her finger _did_ touch him, knocking him back several meters, taking a few of the agents with him, as they were behind him at the time...and were now under his fallen body.

Rey's eyes widened.  "I -"  _I did that?  I did that._

"You deal with Plett," Phasma told her.  "These birds are mine," grinning as she drew her lightsaber and activated it.  _Did my Supreme Leader underestimate her - or did he understate her abilities when he spoke to Kylo Ren and myself?_

"Witch," one of the remaining agents said.

"My great-grandmother was a witch.  A low-ranking Jedi scholar."  _Or so goes my family's lore.  My mother told me that it was my great-grandmother who helped gather the historical documents needed for the child Palpatine.  Some days, I believed her, and some days I didn't._ "Let me show you what a witch can do," seeing Rey in the corner of her eye walking towards Plett who was struggling and trying to crawl backwards still on his back.

* * *

"What happened here?" Finn asked, though the sliced-and-cauterized lethal wounds of the Toydarians told him part of what had transpired before the Millenium Falcon had arrived.

Her nerves on edge, her skin uneasy, Mara followed what felt almost like ionization  from the mini-massacre site, over to where complex of tents in various stages of completion, where a big and bulky alien was handing things to anyone who was nearby.  _The sand left no clues as to direction, but using that much power leaves a charge in the air._ "Who are you?" Mara asked the big one.

Still bequeathing one mechanical object after another, "Here, here, here.  From Unkar Plett to you, you like this,"  holding out his hands.

"You're Unkar Plett?" Finn asked, he and Leia having followed Mara.  "I thought you'd be...meaner."

For all his mass, he tried to shrink inside himself, shielding himself with an arm - and dropped the proffered object on his head and foot.  "I was bad.  Here.  Take.  I give to you," offering something else - an antigrav toaster, by the looks of it.

"She was here, then," Mara sighed.

"Rey did this?" Leia asked.

Plett whimpered and dropped the toaster on himself.  "Told me be nice.  Said to share.  I share," he sobbed.

"She re-wired him," Mara said.

"Isn't that something that needs a lot of training?" Leia asked.  "Or were you and Luke making a joke?"

"There's no skill or care here.   As far as I can tell, Rey _persuaded_ him so hard that his mind broke, reshaping it into this benevolence when she told him what to do with himself." _And if I have to explain to them that this isn't the work of mere annoyance or a mild dislike..._

"We can't be too late.  Not again."

Mara said nothing to that.  But she could taste fire in the next words:

"We'll find her," Finn said.  "We have to."


	6. Darkness' heresy

"I did that," Rey said.  _"I_ did."

"You did," Phasma confirmed.  "Where to next?"

"Don't do me any favors."

"I'm not."

"Then you fear me," Rey said.

"Only a fool would not fear anything.  Those Toydarians were fools."

"Why didn't they just leave?"

"They were too loyal to a corrupt Republic," Phasma said.  Turning on the autopilot, Phasma turned towards Rey.  "Do you feel ashamed?"

"I shouldn't have done that," Rey said.

"Was Unkar Plett an innocent man?"

"No!"

"Then you did nothing wrong," Phasma said.

"I hurt -"

"How many did _he_ hurt?" Phasma interrupted.

"Many," Rey said.

* * *

As they walked through the remains of the AT-AT in the search for where Rey might have gone to ground to take shelter, Finn asked, "There's something I don't understand."

"Then you've got fewer questions than I did when I was your age," Leia chuckled. Soberly, "Go ahead and ask.  Can't be as strange as some of the questions I've gotten."

"I grew up hearing that the Empire was dead and gone.  That the First Order was founded to avenge it.  How can it and the First Order both exist?"

"The Empire lost the war," Leia said.  "That's the thing you need to understand.  They lost, and a group of them grabbed their factory ships and flew off to the back of we never knew where - that's where the First Order comes from: from men and women who refused to believe we won, who couldn't let themselves believe the Empire could lose...unless there was something wrong, and they're going to fix whatever it is they think the Empire got wrong."

"Like having Inquisitors?" Finn asked.

"Supposedly, the Empire denies they ever had any.  The Republic doesn't want to know, so they don't press.  I know better, the hard way."  Leia paused.  "The First Order doesn't have Inquisitors?"

"Anyone who isn't a Technician, is a Stormtrooper.  And some Stormtroopers can be promoted to Technician."

"And what about people who can use the Force?"

"They're part of the Supreme Leader's inner circle.  Kylo Ren, and Phasma, though I don't know if she's a Force user like Kylo Ren and Darth Vader were.  She's stronger than everyone else in armored uniform...in the First Order, I mean."

Leia nodded, taking that in.  "And here I thought there were few in the Empire - compared to the First Order, the Empire had Force-users all over the place." _And one of them was my dad.  And the other was the Emperor  And then you have Mara Jade and others in the service of one or the other of them.  And the Inquisitors themselves._

 

* * *

 "Its strange," Han remarked in the Rebel Base, leaning against a wall facing his son's prison cell.  "We've still had no flybys, no probes or droids or even a spy - nothing from the First Order to get you out of here.  Huh; guess the bond between a master and his apprentice isn't as strong as I'd thought it was."

"A master may have several apprentices," Ben said.  _I am not the only one.  And I will be avenged even if I cannot free myself and thus fail to prove myself worthy._

"That's not what I remember hearing," Han said.

"That's because the Empire corrupted itself and bought into misled teachings.  We are returning to the true teachings."

"And whose idea of 'true teachings' would that be?"

"Those who knew the Force best."

"Jedi?"

"You already know the answer."  Ben paused, and asked something he'd never understood:  "Why does Mara Jade call you a Sith?"

Han smiled.  "Isn't it obvious?"

"You're nothing like a Sith," Ben spat.

"I hurt people, kid.  Broke laws.  Defied anyone and everyone."

"No.  You are a team with Uncle Chewie."

"Yeah," Han agreed.  "And your grandfather worked close with a bunch of people."

"We are correcting their mistakes," Ben stated.

Han smiled on the inside, chuffed that he was about to use a line that was often aimed at him in times past: "How do you know which ones were the mistakes?"

* * *

 "I'm...powerful," Rey said after a day of contemplation.

"Yes.  You are," Phasma said.

"What can I do?"

 _Am I still a guide, or am I now a master?_   "What you want to."

Rey absorbed the potential in that answer, and a smile born of hope grew across her face; it flickered when she asked, "Can I find anyone?"  _Uncle?_

"Its possible."

"And if...  Can I bring back the dead?"

Phasma hesitated.  _Even of the Lords of old avoided that.  Which is not to say there weren't whispers, so still..._   "There are tales of Sith who could do that.  It was rare, and little-spoken-of.  Little rumors here and there in history."

Rey nodded.  "If we can't find him, then tell me how to do that, please."

She nodded.

"We need to go to Naboo," Rey said.  "He might have gone back.  Gone for help or gone to die."  Her mind refused to entertain other theories - it always had.

"Course set," Phasma said.

* * *

 "Ah, my old friend Scilene, how are ya?" Han asked when one of the innumerable under-under-under-secretaries finally transferred him to a Republic official who would know something.

On the screen, "Much better, now that I don't have to worry about your incessant flirting," Scilene said. "Also with much more job security, as a functionary of the Republic."

"Its wasted on you. There's a reason why people went to war to get you working for them."

"And I still use those same skills, Han, without damaging planets."

"Speaking of, I just talked to Leia -"

"How is Her Most Imperial And Serene High Majesty?" Scilene asked.

"Well she'd be annoyed that anybody remembers even that much of her title, but other than that, she's been doing good," Han said. "Lately, though, we may have a problem."

Scilene sighed. "You two found trouble faster than it ever sought me out."

"Not by a wide margin, but yeah. Anyway, she was looking for a friend, and she came across a guy named Unkar Plett, and a lot of dead Toydarians in Republic uniforms."

"Wearing suits, in other words? Plett...that's a name that crossed my desk recently. We sent those Toydarians to arrest Plett and bring him to the Republic to face justice; please have the bodies shipped home to the Republic - we'll compensate you for the expense. Is Plett fit to stand trial?"

"Based on what Leia told me, I'm not sure he can _stand_ without wetting himself."

"How...unfortunate."

"Yeah. Seems a Sith got hold of him."

"Oh dear," Scilene said, sliding away from her desk a little.

"Problem?"

"It plays into the hands of the current batch of movers and shakers here, so, yes."

"I thought the government over there was just wiped out," Han said.

"Those who were in the powerful positions were, yes, as were some of their juniors and aides - most were either finishing taking the last of their things from the previous seat of power, or taking them to the next seat." _When you rotate which world is the home of the Republic, you can't do that all at once. The Hosnian system was the current seat of government, but its loss will not make us unable to function._ "Many of the moderates are now either dead or fearful. And just when things had begun to swing away from the anti-Force movements."

"Ah, return of the idiots," Han said.

"Idiots with carefully-presented arguments and supported by the people - you know, the masses that you and I and your wife fought to empower?" Scilene said.

"I never said they weren't crafty idiots."

"In the old Republics, _Ambassador_ Solo, those who showed an aptitude for the Force, were shuttled off to become Jedi. As history has shown us, even recently as you know, both the Sith _and the Jedi_ are dangerous - too dangerous for them to exist in the Republic."

"So what's your solution?" Han asked. "Kill 'em all?"

"Never. Exile, every last one of them." The functionary shuffled some papers. "But you didn't call to discuss my Republic's policies towards historical troublemakers. Did you?"

"Nope," said Han Solo, former smuggler. "Wanted to know about Naboo."

"Formerly a world of the Empire - without the tight grip most Imperial worlds experienced. Before that, it was a key world in the Traders' kerfuffle that sparked into the Clone Wars. Does that help?"

"Who was running the place all lightly-lightly, then?"

"Who...?" she repeated, reaching into some holofiles. "By the time the Empire got there, Naboo didn't have its elected monarchy anymore. So the Empire appointed a native...populism of sorts, the man was a war hero, according to this file. Friend of and friendly to the monarchy and Jedi during and pre-Clone Wars."

"Whereas after the Wars, there weren't really any Jedi hanging around in public," Han said. "Great. A name?"

"When your wife's Rebellion began making the big scores against the Empire, Naboo was entering one of those cold spells they get every hundred thousand years or so, and so, during an uprising, the people exiled," and she squinted at name, "one Jar Jar Binks and small child. According to this addendum, the two were told that if they ever returned, then there would be a reprisal against Mr. Binks' hibernating family; ditto if they informed the Empire of their banishment."

"Does the file say if the two of them ended up on Jakku?" Han asked. _They didn't tell their bosses, but they took shelter in the shadow of those bosses. Cute._

"I'm afraid not. Will that be all?"

"Yeah, I guess -- no. One more thing."

* * *

Naboo was far colder now than it had been three or even two generations ago.  Its vast waterways sat under shields of ice, while chill-loving grasses and trees kept the land green.

Where there had been human cities, now Rey and Phasma could only see scarred land, burnt raw from orbit.  The fury of the Empire had spared only the Palace District and the Gungan Sleepplaces.  _Lord Vader's orders,_ Phasma knew from her own days as an archivist.  _The Empire was beginning its slow fall, and lashed out at those who took advantage of any Imperial weakness._

"No," Rey breathed, beholding the devastation.

"The power of the Empire at its corruptmost and uncaring," Phasma said, using the Naboo dialect to say that - in most Human dialects, _uncaring_ and _indifferent_ were related and sometimes exchangeable words.  In the dialect spoken on Naboo - during the childhoods of Padme and Phasma, at lest - those two words were very different in origins and use and every other regard.

"They killed," Rey said.  "Indiscriminately and so much."

"To excess," Phasma agreed.  _You can't be controlled, but you can be aimed.   And soon, if not already, you'll be past the point where the First Order will be the only people willing to help you._   "And the men responsible for this, live on."

"No," Rey said, not believing that.

"The Empire still exists, and they gave estates to those who did things such as that."  _Their population was low enough that everyone got an estate in the galactic speck they retain control of._

Feeling the charge of Force bending to Rey's will and begging to be unleashed, Phasma wondered _If she inadvertently destroys this ship, would that earlier Force-and-memory bubble suffice to keep us alive in space?_

* * *

"What now?" Leia asked.

Nobody said anything.

"Well?" Leia asked.

Noticing where the other woman was glaring, Mara asked, "Are you asking me?"

"Not gladly, but yes."

"Your husband just told us that Rey was from Naboo."

Leia nodded; _so that's why you asked him to ask._ "Can you use the Force to push us there faster than normal?" To Poe and Finn, "Could you boost the engines?"

"We'd still get there too late," Mara said, looking down, not meeting anyones eyes.

"We have to stop her," Poe said.

"We have to save her," Finn said.

"Do you want to try to catch her," Mara asked, "or do you want her to come to us?"

"But that would mean we'd have to find the First Order."

"Not neccessarily," Poe said.  "We just need to get out in front of Rey."

Leia nodded, hoping this wasn't going where she suspected it was.  "We could go somewhere that the First Order wants destroyed."

Mara nodded. "A target-rich enviroment."

"Something important to them," Finn said.

"Symbols are important, eh, Rebel?"

Meeting her eyes, Leia said, "No."

"What?" Finn asked.

"We are _not_ going to the Empire."

"We have to save Rey."

Poe nodded.  "We do," he agreed.  "And isn't it the sort of thing you used to do?"

"What stories have you been listening to?" Leia asked.

"Stories?" Finn asked.

"Just the ones you and your friends tell," Poe answered her.

"Don't glare at me," Mara said; "I don't reminisce with people who weren't there."  _Which is not the same as not mentioning it, but..._

"Fine," Leia grumbled.  "Plot a course.  And if this is a trap..."

"Yes yes,  I know, I'll wish I'd never been born, etc, etc."

"Actually, I was going to say this time that you'd have to surrender a your lightsaber and a kiss to Chewie, but I think that'll be the penalty if anything goes wrong on this mission."

Not for the first time, Poe wondered where friendship ended and hostility began - even a professional hostility.

 


	7. even Darkness casts shadows

_The Empire's entrenched itself,_ Leia noted as she, Finn, and Poe were escorted from the Millenium Falcon by Mara and a cadre of youngish guards, as they were being led towards the Imperial Command Headquarter Building, which hadn't been there the last time Leia had been in Imperial territory.  Right now, though, Leia had to rub her eyes, _because there's no way that that's...  No.  Can't be._

To those who only knew history through secondhand accounts or holotexts, the roof and much of the I.C.H.B. looked like a surviving piece of one of the Death Stars: one of the domes, with the weapon section sitting just above the entrance.  _As though about to blaze destruction upon any who would charge at the head of the Empire,_ Poe observed.

"You had someone build this?" Leia asked, who knew that nothing bigger than her head had survived the death throes of the Death Star.

"Bad memories?" Mara asked.

"I was just thinking its weird to make your emperor live inside a building modeled after one of your biggest failures."

"A failure is something that does not work, Alderaani," Mara said more mildly than she could have.  "This was one of our biggest sabotaged projects."

"What do we do when we get inside?" Poe asked.  "Or are we supposed to wait out here?  Do we drop and put our bellies on the ground?  Or kneel before whomever's running things now?"

 _You throw yourself into fracas after firefight, yet you don't like seeing adults argue_ ," Mara considered.  "Show respect.  It doesn't matter if you like him or his government or his predecessors - you are his guest.  The law of hospitality applies."

"Pobesh Etrul still in charge?" Leia asked.

All their guards made disgusted noises.

"What?"

"You need to talk with your husband more, General," Mara said.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Leia asked.

"Etrul was one of his oldest friends."  _As Lord Vader's apprentice and right hand, I was the one all the surviving Generals and Moffs could agree upon, when the question arose of who should lead what remained of the Empire.  I refused, and gave my backing to the only other person everyone could agree upon.  Everyone but Pobesh Etrul, who seized the throne as soon as my back was turned - there would have been a civil war of startling briefness, but Etrul would have inflicted wounds that our enemies would have rendered into fatal wounds.  Han Solo worked out a peace that left his buddy Etrul with a title and a life, and my Emperor restored himself to the throne._ "Talk to your husband.  Lord Solo would love that, I imagine."

"Lord Solo?" Leia repeated as the doors into the I.C.H.B. opened before them.

After that, they were waved through security  ( _Mara vouched for us, its her head if we misbehave_ ), and through a chamber where the Generals and Moffs and other high-ups of the Empire would gather.  And then, after passing a triple set of doors which were each heavily defended, they reached the throne room.

The ceiling had two concentric circles on it; between them formed the appearance of a wreath, with a row of circles from one end of the ring to the other, and the top two circles overlapped, producing the appearance of a two-headed being: to one side was Senator Palpatine as he looked at the dawn of the Empire; to the other, the worn and strict face he wore in the final years of the Empire.  On the Senator's side, were two circles with Myn Neel, and one circle with Pobesh Etrul's faded visage.  On the Emperor's side was Mara Jade and a face that was only an outline, the sort you see if a sun is on the opposite side of their head from you. 

"Your successor?" Poe asked.

"Yes.  He's already looking for a replacement himself," Mara said.  All the other circles were empty.

As they were ushered further into the Imperial throne room, Mara stopped halfway between the doors and the throne, and lowered herself to one knee. "Greetings, my Emperor," she said. "We have come, suitably humble -"

The Emperor made a noise of impatience. "I owe my throne to you, Mara. And I am not a young Quarren. Now, with those two reasons, I will have you speak plainly as to why you have brought General Leia Organa here." To Leia, "Or is it General Skywalker, now? You were unsure of changing it, when last we met."

Leia said, "You remembered." _You were one of the first squid-faced Quarren I'd ever met_.

"I am Quarren. Now, your reason for being here? I presume it means you need something that your Republic and your Rebellion cannot provide you."

"Actually, I'm here because you need my help," Leia said.

"I am Emperor of what little remains of the Empire."

"An Empire which put Quarren in labor camps."

"Yes. Because the Emperor then, he did not take sides - he saw my parents and their cohorts rising against Mon Calamari injustice, and he treated both races with equal strictness. Or would you prefer the Empire had played favorites?"

"My Emperor...Myn Neel," Mara corrected herself. "What the Rebellion General hesitates to tell you, is that the First Order has a new weapon. And you are its next target."

"The weapon which struck the Hosnians?" asked Emperor Myn Neel.

"That one isn't a problem," Leia said. "Its the person-sized one that's the problem."

"How problematic?"

Mara said, "The weapon is a woman, one who wields the Force with as much might as my late master...at least. Perhaps nearly the late Emperor."

"Then we shall make preparations accordingly," Myn Neel said. "If there is nothing else, you are dismissed."

"No! We have to help!" Finn blurted out.

Those facial tentacles twitched to the sides, as though measuring, before returning to lay forwards once more. "Who are you?" the Emperor asked.

"My name...is Finn," he said. "My friend's the one the First Order turned into a weapon."

"My condolences, then," Emperor Myn Neel said, facial tentacles drawn together in the space after saying that.

"She's not dead," Finn said. "And I want to help get her back."

"Is that so? Who are you?"

"Finn. My name's Finn."

"Your credentials," Myn Neel said.

"I helped destroy the First Order's ship...the Starkiller Base," Finn said.

"Then, for that, I will give you a ship to command."

 _As much to help us, as a jab at Admiral Ackbar_ , Leia suspected, though it was possible there was no jab intended.

"No," Finn said, shaking his head. "They've got ships too, a lot of them."

Myn Neel said to Leia, "Strange that your boy does not know his own history."

 _That's probably the nicest backhanded compliment anyone's ever told me about my brother,_ Leia mused.

"How can I?" Finn snapped at him.

Mara flicked into a standing pose as ready for physical fighting as lightsaber use, as much as for using the Force.

"Explain, then," the Emperor said.

Finn marched from where he had been standing, to halfway to the throne; now three-quarters of the way into the room. "I got called the name 'Finn.' My name is FN-2187. I was a Stormtrooper for the First Order, and I abandoned my position. I ran!" His face barely managed to hide the internal storm Mara could sense roiling in him. "I'm done running. I want to go save Rey!"

"Rey is the girl?"

"Yeah. Rey's the girl," Finn said, placing a different emphasis on the article.

Emperor Myn Neel left his throne and walked down to Finn. "Then I and my Empire shall help you. You are, after all, something we sorely need - an example. Your bravery led you from their poisoned heart, past their nails and lasers, to those who can appreciate you best."

"Yeah, the Rebellion's full of great people."

Mara closed her eyes and mentally shook her head.

By now, the Emperor was standing right in front of Finn, less than one arm length between them. "They transported you, for which we are grateful. But you have a role here as sizeable as the Skywalker Twins had in their Rebellion."

"Twins?" Finn asked.

 _I knew we forgot to mention something...actually, we haven't mentioned it in a long while,_ Leia thought.

"Any Force-driven idiot can destroy a world," the Emperor said, then looked over at the women and said, "No offense."

Leia waited for Mara to say its nothing - at least for her Emperor - and then Leia realized, "Me?"

"I forget that, as a Rebel, you are unlike both Quarrens and Imperials, and would not take offense where your brother's honor is staked."

Mara snorted.

Emperor Myn Neel placed a hand gently on Finn's arm. "Walk with me. There is much we need to discuss."

"Um..." Finn said.

To Mara, "Assemble my Generals and the more capable Moffs left to us," the Emperor commanded. "Be ready in the strategy room."

"At once, my Emperor," Mara said, and, grabbing Leia by the arm, pulled her out of the throne room. Under her breath as she was doing so, "If he was going to kill your boy, he would have done so already."

"Unless he's going to kill Finn with every Imperial General present," Leia snapped just as hushed.

"Which means Finn is safe while we're not with him."

Leia snarked that, "Oh, well if its _that_ easy, we should leave and get all the ships my people can gather together," though the second half was perfectly serious.  "Dameron," she called over to him.

Poe walked with them.   "Yes, General?"

"Think you can keep an eye on Finn without being caught or noticed?"

Poe nodded.

Leia nodded, dismissing him.

"Don't make me walk you both out of here," Mara warned them.

"I can't just let him go off un-"

Narrowing her eyes at Leia, Mara stated that,  "Finn is not Ben.  My Emperor is neither Luke nor a heretic."

 _Used to be, I'd rib her - ask if Jedi are considered heretics to her side.  I'm getting old_ , was the conclusion she embraced, rather than what had gone wrong with Ben.  She glared back at Mara. 

"Call him off."

"Stick with us," Leia told Poe.

Poe nodded.   "Understood."

* * *

"Why aren't we going anywhere?" Rey asked.  "You said -"

Phasma answered her, "And we are going to pay a visit to the Empire to make them pay for what they have done to us all.   But we must be careful - by now, they are likely hiding behind the Rebellion's skirts."

"I know some of the Rebels," Rey said.  "They were good to me - they won't be a problem."

"The Rebellion always presents a friendly face to those they seek to strip of anything useful," Phasma said.

Rey felt with her Force, and felt... _Truth?  Honesty?  I don't know what those feel like - never had a reason for use the Force to check for them...never knew how to before, or that I could.  But her statement lines up with her, like all droids and machines do after I fix them and they're running smoothly.   Hmm, Phasma's like BB8 in that regard - I don't think either of them's lied to me._   "So what do we do?" Rey asked.

"The First Order will join us shortly.  They will guard your back so the Rebels and the Imperials can't stab you in the back."

"And then?"  _Uncle told me to always ask that - and I haven't been doing that like I should've, not for over a year now._

"You get your revenge," Phasma said.

* * *

 Midway through the walk through the Imperial zoo and garden, Finn stopped.

The quaggatree fluttered.  Around them, masters and apprentices kept moving, as did families visiting the animals and plants and other things on display.

After having heard the tales of what Luke Skywalker had done to the Death Stars, with the implication of what he was being asked to do, Finn was quiet for a few minutes before he said "One problem with your plan - its a nice analogy and all, but I can't use the Force."

"That makes it a perfect analogy," Myn Neel said.  "A Jedi destroyed the Forceless superweapons.  Now a Forceless man will destroy the threat of a Forceful superweapon."

"I'm not going to kill Rey," Finn said.  "We need to rescue her."

The Emperor gave a slow nod.  "I agree completely.  And you must understand that a person is not a place," as one tentacle curled towards his eye and then uncurled alongside its fellows.

"That doesn't even make sense."

"Then I will tell you a history lesson," Emperor Myn Neel said.  "You may have met one or more Mon Calamari - Admiral Ackbar likely; they evolved to intelligence on the same world that my kind did. Less than a thousand years ago, the Mon Calamari had developed to heights of technology, but they still saw my kind - the Quarren - as a threat, a danger to them.  So the Mon Calamari captured as many young Quarren as they could, and locked us away for decades; in the end, they released us back into the depths of our world, tamer, favoring them over our own kind.  We were back in the abyssal depths we had come from...but not the same as we had been."

"I was taken from my family when I was a kid.  I don't know how old I was, or where I lived," Finn said.  "The First Order, they didn't just hold on to me...they taught me, made sure I learned."  _If I had ever gone home, would I have known it?  Would I have done anything?_ "The same with you?"

"Yes.  They did not simply lock us away - they taught us while we were locked away from our kind.  Instilled Mon Calamari ideals and ethics, arts and light tolerances," looking into Finn's eyes.

Finn saw eyes that had been bleached like vegetable leaves.

Myn Neel said, "I and General Organa could both send troops in to extract your friend from the First Order's ships.  I am sending _you_ to extract her mind from their control."

"And if I can't?" Finn asked, curious what the backup plan was.

"Unlike in the past, the Empire is bicameral.  You are my solution.  If you somehow fail, the Sith will try their solution.  Don't fail."

"No pressure," Finn said, trying to chuckle.

"Imperial teachings tell us that everything applies pressure - it is a physical law of the universe.  The Jedi accept the pressure of all things, and never do more than lessen it.  The Sith prefer to destroy that which is unwelcome pressures.  You can utilize these, or you can devise your own style," said the Emperor to Finn. 


	8. Darkness and Light - the galaxy waits

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> have to split this chapter, sorry.

In the Capital Ship, Rey looked at the screen, frowning as the tiny shuttle - barely bigger than the TIE figher she'd absconded with with Finn's help - _how long ago? that recently?_ \- continued to head her way, away from the shelter of the Empire's planet. She reached out, and felt a mind chiseled by indoctrination and honed by losses.

Striding over from where he had been observing the technicians, General Hux stopped and arm-and-a-half distance from her.   "The Supreme Leader will be arriving soon," Hux said.  "And he will witness our victory over the failures of the past."

"How many times did I escape from your custody - twice?" Rey asked him, smiling a little at his expense.  Phasma had called her invaluable, and called her a key piece to the impending victory.

"Perhaps," Hux said, and she could feel the distortion of the truth as the words rose from his throat.  "But we are on the same side now."

"For now."

The show of bravado actually amused him:  "If you betray us, where will you go?  The Empire and the Rebellion kill their enemies.  Or try to."

Rey said nothing, but was thankful that at least he hadn't sneered it.  The approaching mind - _out there, crossing space_ \- was edged by mental flames that were being tempered down, their edges capped with - _what is that?  friendship, i think._

 _Hope?_

* * *

Sitting in the lone chair of the de-fanged TIE fighter, Finn de facto had a front-row seat to the looming presence of the New Order Capital Ship which bristled with turrets, fighter bays, and - __that thing there means one of their theoretical things isn't theoretical any more -__ and Finn continued tapping the controls of this TIE so its approach would remain at a steady rate of slowness.

"Not that I'm questioning the plan," Finn said over comms to Leia and the others at the shipyard a short walk from the Imperial Throne - _And was that placement deliberate?_    "But what was the backup again?"

"Just keep them talking," Leia said.  "We'll do our parts," knowing the New Order could and likely was intercepting every word of this conversation.

"I know.  Though, you never answered me this: what's keeping them from shooting me out of space?"

"Your ship is weaponless, and you're not a Jedi or a Sith," Mara Jade answered.  _And you're going too slowly to crash into them, unless they bungle things massively._   "Destroying you as you are, would make them vulnerable." 

"That's not as reassuring as you think it is," Finn stated.

 _When you rule by appealing to shows of force and strength, you can't stop doing that._ "They hate even the appearance of vulnerability, more than my Empire ever did."

"Which is saying something," Leia said.

"Okay.  Thanks.  I think," Finn said.  "Okay, stall for time, stall for time..." turned off that comm, and activated another: "FN-2187 to Capital Ship.  I'm repeating my request for parley.  I mean for conference."

Silence.

"This is Stormtrooper FN-21-"

"This is General Hux of the New Order," came the reply.  "State your business."

"Conference," Finn restated.

A toggling sound - Finn wasn't sure if Hux was laughing or relaying the message.

Another toggling.  "To confer with who, FN-2187?"

"With whom," Finn said.  "I want to see and talk to Rey."

"And if I refuse?" Hux asked.

 _Poe and Solo.  What would they do?_ Look, its okay if you can't do it; at least you're honest about it.   I mean, I always thought you were one of the top five people in the New Order.  Guess I was wrong.  Bye."

"Wait!" Hux said and grumbled something.  Then, "The shuttlecraft will be out shortly; dock with that," and turned off comms.

Finn waited.

Finn's TIE jostled, telling him that the New Order had him in a tractor beam.

A shuttle emerged from the Capital Ship - not a weaponless shuttle, he knew - and the docking was done for him.

"O-kay...now its time."

* * *

In three places of this galaxy, three individuals of great power sent their self-projections for a conference - to witness the conference that Finn was having.  As none of the three were dead, these were not Force ghosts, but they were far more substantial than flimsy holograms; these were manifestations of their wills, agents of their bidding.

"You're early," Mara said, standing from her position.  "That won't inspire trust."

Luke's self-projection shrugged.  "I always like to get up with the suns.  You know that."

"Whereas civilized people are already awake by then."

"You're just upset you didn't come up with this plan."

"I understand the irony of this plan," she said. "All too well."

"Should be fun," said Luke, "if we don't die."

"Fun is meeting a challenge and fighting it til one side breaks."

"Clearly we drew different lessons from our time in the ruins."

"You know I'm right."

"I knew it - you didn't believe me."

"I believe it wasn't a delusion. Honesty's one of your better traits."

"You're evil."

"You knew that even before there was a relationship to go into," she said.

"If the two of you are finished your flirting," Snoke said, his self-projection having joined them here on the Imperial capital's rooftop.

Each of them understood that it would be incredibly easy to launch an attack on any other projected self, cutting into the greatest part of the mind.  And each of them knew that each of them had reasons to either strike or to not give aide.  _Even the two of you,_ mused Snoke.

"What was that?" Luke asked him.  Thoughts were as clear as speech in this.

"I had been reading before the time appointed for this conference," Snoke said.  "A short essay on the forms of post-establishment courtships in the galaxy.  The rathtas were my favorite."

"Surprise," Mara muttered.

"You and my sister are the only ones who pronounce 'rathtars' that way," Luke said.  "But we should table this for later."

"The stage is set," Snoke said.

 _And none of us can interfere - by mutual consent,_ Mara knew; _Some of us are more confident than others about just how easily the girl will join the Dark Side, or if there are other options...Light Side or not.  These sort of things are understandably infrequent._

Snoke shushed her; just to be contrary, she was sure.

* * *

 

Meanwhile, in the Imperial Shipyard's command center, Leia said, "Something I used to ask, and you never answered - what happens if a powerful Jedi gets blown up?"

"Under normal circumstaces, the same thing as when you blow up anyone else," Myn Neel said. "But in spacecraft that detonate completely, a powerful Jedi and a powerful Sith meet the same end: a quarter of the galaxy loses electricity and other forms of power. And here in the immediate vicinity and a dozen star systems in any direction, everything turns to ash if it is lucky."

Leia blinked. "You didn't even hesitate on that math." _Didn't need a minute to think or work it out._

"That's right."

"Are you telling me..." and then wasn't sure she wanted to hear the answer.

"The math's already been done," Myn Neel said. "If my High Sith's late master had been aboard the Death Star when it met its end, he wouldn't have survived. But you wouldn't have been an orphan - you and your Rebellion would be dead as well."

 _What's there to say, other than this one thing?_ "I'm surprised the Emperor then didn't consider that option."

"Emperors rarely tell people what they are thinking. Unless its to tell them what to think, like Jedi did."

"Then is it irony that you're telling me this?" Leia asked him.

"I am one of five people in the Empire who knew all that I just told you.  One of them joined the First Order.  Another was assassinated."

* * *

 

As Rey sat on the bench taking up one wall of the shuttle, facing the docking door, she knew Phasma and Hux were at each other's throats, and had a hunch it wasn't even close to being the first time.

The door opened, and in stepped Finn.  "Hi, Rey," he said as he sat down on the dockingside wall's bench.

"Finn," Rey said.  "Or do you prefer FN?"

"I'm good with either: its only a name."

"Are you going to stop me?" she asked.

"Stop you from what?" Finn asked.

"You know."

"Not sure I do."

"They wouldn't have sent out here if you didn't know," Rey was sure.

"I'm a Stormtrooper," Finn said; "We're sent out to do and die; that was true in the Empire, and is still true in the New Order."

"Then join me and get out of my way."

"How am I in your way?"

Rey stood.  "The Empire must pay!"

"Yeah," Finn agreed.  "That's it?"

"You don't understand."

"You're right, I don't understand, Rey; not sure I could, however much I want to.  I'm a Stormtrooper.   I have no idea if my parents are alive or not, because the First Order came in and turned me into a walking weapon."

"Then let me do this, and then I'll help you find your parents," Rey said.

"Friendship isn't an if-then deal," Finn said, and stood up.

"So you're leaving?"

"You don't understand," he said, and crossed the shuttle to stand near her.   "I'm not in your way.  I wouldn't make you decide."

"Then what were you asking me?" Rey asked him.

"I was curious what you were going to do."

"I was going to punish the Empire."

"For what?" Finn asked.

"My uncle is dead because of them," Rey said.  "For all my life, he was the only friend I had."

"The Empire killed him?"

"They stood by and did nothing when we had to leave our home," Rey said.   "Everyone cheered..."

Finn didn't like the look that crossed Rey's face.

"The Rebellion.  They didn't help - nobody helped - when we went into exile on Jakku.  Uncle dying a slow death, and nobody caring about a veteran Gungan growing more and more parched and infirm." _Always cheerful, no matter what befell us.  Always had a funny story or a neat trick.  When he wasn't sad, when the memories didn't hold him tight._

"The Rebellion did?" Finn asked.

"They never came to get us, not even when they won.  It wasn't a secret we were going to Jakku - there was none of the mystery or elusiveness Luke Skywalker has, about where he went.  And yet people try to find him - but didn't come for us," Rey said, and could feel the Force gathering around her.

"We came for you, Rey.  Not then, but now," Finn said.  "The General wasn't happy with the idea, but it was the only way to reunite with you."

Rey frowned, looking over his words - _you're not saying 'come to rescue' or 'we're going to save you'..._ "Then you forced the Rebellion to bend to your demands?  How?"  _What did I miss?_

"I helped them look for you, and when they asked for ideas, I offered mine.  That's why I'm here now."

"I'm here to..this has to be done."

"Then why wait?" Finn asked.  "I don't get in the way."

Rey was about to thank him and aim for her first target in this system, but then it hit her: "Phasma warned me about you - about this - about what you're trying," Rey said, searching for the right words for this.  _At the time, I thought she was just filling empty space every so often while we were waiting, by saying things she'd learned while working closely with Stormtroopers._   "You'll go along with anything I say."

"I'm sorry I didn't before," _when I was so desperate to get away from anywhere the First Order could reach._

"Stop being a Stormtrooper!" Rey admonished him.  Warmth surged along her spine, its power flowing up and down her limbs once more.

"Not sure I can," Finn said.  _When we weren't hard at work at our assigned duties, and when we weren't doing our drills, every unit spent time together -- we do everything together, even downtime; that way, when we go in the field, we fight for the guys on our left and the ones on our right, avenging their deaths with all severity._  "Not sure I'd want to."

"Then obey - that's what you do, right?  I'm giving you an order, Finn, and I expect you to obey it: go and get somewhere safe." _Get away.  I'm dangerous._

"I did.  I'm not leaving," Finn said.


	9. Darkness and Light - the hammer falls

"I'm here to..this has to be done."

"Then why wait?" Finn asked.  "I don't get in the way."

Rey was about to thank him and aim for her first target in this system, but then it hit her: "Phasma warned me about you - about this - about what you're trying," Rey said, searching for the right words for this.  _At the time, I thought she was just filling empty space every so often while we were waiting, by saying things she'd learned while working closely with Stormtroopers._   "You'll go along with anything I say."

"I'm sorry I didn't before," _when I was so desperate to get away from anywhere the First Order could reach._

"Stop being a Stormtrooper!" Rey admonished him.  Warmth surged along her spine, its power flowing up and down her limbs once more.

"Not sure I can," Finn said.  _When we weren't hard at work at our assigned duties, and when we weren't doing our drills, every unit spent time together -- we do everything together, even downtime; that way, when we go in the field, we fight for the guys on our left and the ones on our right, avenging their deaths with all severity._  "Not sure I'd want to."

"Then obey - that's what you do, right?  I'm giving you an order, Finn, and I expect you to obey it: go and get somewhere safe." _Get away.  I'm dangerous._

"I did.  I'm not leaving," Finn said.

"Don't make me make you leave," Rey told him.

"You gave me an order - that's making me."

"With orders, you still have a choice.  I don't want to take that choice from you."

"Then...don't," Finn said.

"Then go."

"I can't."

 _Then what can you do?_ she thought and nearly asked aloud.  Rey grumbled and began to turn away, thinking of getting behind the controls of this ship and -

Finn reached out and touched her arm.  **'Never grab an equal'** had been one of the first lessons he'd ever learned.

She looked at him, then at the contact point on her arm.

He held still, even with how hot her skin was, with all the lifeforce within.

"Finn?" Rey asked.

"Yeah, Rey?" Finn asked.

Not sure what to ask, til, "Why did you come out here?"

"I turned my back on my friends once.  I can't do it again."  _I almost did, back on Maz' world - that was a close call.  And being called 'traitor' reminded me of the sheer importance of never doing it again_.

"I... I'm your friend?" Rey asked.

"Of course," Finn said.

"I chased you through the tents.  I beat you up.  I'm why you nearly got eaten."

"Things happen.  You can't control everything."  _And if there's one things shared by Stormtroopers throughout history, its that understanding._

"Except _I can._   I can now," Rey said.  "I couldn't save you before.  Now I can.  So get out of here, Finn.  They won't go after you, Finn; I swear."

"There's a standing order to hunt down any and all traitors, defectors, and cowards."

"They won't hurt you.  They won't touch you."  And then, to her eyes, Finn looked... _Sad?_

"We grew up on different stories, Rey.  A Jedi _doesn't need_ to touch."

"Neither does a Sith," Rey said, remembering being told that by a figure rare in her memory-dreams... tall, dark, and with a breathing problem.   "And the First Order isn't a match for me.  I'm powerful."

"Good to hear."

Thinking she knew what was up, what was wrong, Rey assured him that "They won't hurt you.  I won't let them."

"I believe you," Finn said.  _But my unit believed me when I told them that I'd always be there for them - we said it every night to each other, reassuring like nothing else...and I left without them.  One of us dies, and I fail the rest._

Rey could feel Finn's belief in her.  And then she felt the rough edges of the memories of betrayal and loss and failing.  "I'm here," she told him.  "Trust me."

"I trust you," Finn said, and his belief radiated from him.

 _Something...what?_ The analogy which came to Rey's mind was that she had the climbing gear set so she could latch onto the next wall in search of recoverables, and the next wall was within reach and ready to be picked clean, but the gear wouldn't reach the wall.  _Time to make the connection_ , she figured.  "You trust me, but you don't trust them to keep away."

"They don't have a reason to."

"I said I'd tell them... Rey started to say, and then she remembered some of her fellow scavengers back on Jakku: some of them could be trusted to do as they promised, whereas others would comply only until you had walked away.  _They rule by fear - Phasma implied as much, and my time with Kylo Ren and Hux confirmed it more than enough._   "Then I'll just have to make them."

"Rey, you broke that man's mind on Jakku," Finn said.  "BB8 told me how you felt about him, but this -"

"Don't worry, Finn.  I won't be talking to the boss, not this time," Rey said, turning fully around to face the First Order fleet, without breaking contact with him. _I could tell them to go away, to leave us alone...but that would just delay the problem for another day. They'd still be out there, hurting others even if they're not hurting me. I know..._

* * *

Invisible to others, it was almost blinding to the senses of Mara and the projections of Luke and Snoke: a pulse emanating from the shuttle, and grew into a wave that hammered the First Order fleet.

"Betrayal," Snoke said.

"Is it betrayal if you _assumed_ she was on your side?" Mara asked.

"They're not dead," Luke observed. "Just...sleeping."

All three of them realized that Rey was more powerful than had been previously assumed, even by them themselves.

"Looks like someone's after your job," Mara chuckled at Snoke's expression, though it was for different reasons, neither of them were pleased at the opportunism being displayed by the TIES and X-Wings heading out towards the now downed First Order crafts. _Don't - don't do it._

"I don't think they're done," Luke said after the X-Wings and other fighter craft - Rebellion and Imperial - were made to stick in place where they were...and while the Force wave was barreling towards the three of them. _Its like the same wave that brought down the First Order fleet, then turned without losing speed or anything._

"Treachery!" Snoke roared.  "You shall be -" and he and Luke vanished, the connection having been severed in a very severe and abrupt way.

Rather than sigh, Mara blew a puff of air up to rustle her bangs.  _For all that Luke and I kid about being each other's apprentice, now I have to become what role I had hesitated to step into - what is required of me, under the Rule Of Two._

But rather than leave the roof, she stayed to watch how it all played out. _See what my coming apprentice does next._

* * *

 The first that Rey knew of it, was Finn letting go and crumbling to the floor.  Rey dropped alongside him, half-kneeling, half-crouching.  "Finn?" she asked him.  "Finn?"

"Always," Finn said.  "Anytime you need."

 _You should have let go_ was both followed by and following _I did - how did I do that?_

Rey gathered him up, holding him not unlike how Kylo Ren had once picked her up, back on Maz' world.  "Wake up," she asked everyone.  "Arrest your officers and help me," she said, asking them, not commanding them.  "Help me," she asked, quieter.

* * *

On the Capital Ship of the New Order, Phasma was surrendering her weapons while Hux was being slammed into a wall and forcibly disarmed.  "You thought it was so clever, didn't you, you and your predecessor," Phasma asked him.  "Including in the Stormtrooper training the passage 'stand together, or die alone'...this is what happens."

"You're a Stormtrooper," Hux spat at her.

"I was.  Once.  I retained the drills, but not so much of the imprintings."

"Traitor!"

"Am I?  You were quite insistent that you be the commanding officer of the fleet, particularly with Kylo Ren absent," Phasma said.  "And now - in addition to the Empire's and what of the Rebellion is here - the entire technological and intellectual capabilities of the First Order, all our manpower which you were determined to bring here...is loyal to the girl you thought so little of."  _The question now is, what does Rey want with three fleets?_


	10. Light's victory

A DAY LATER:

Myn Neel strode through the hospital, looking in on recoveries and surgeries alike. In time, he happened upon another visitor of this hospital:

"Any news?" Leia asked, her wrists still sore where she'd been restrained, however briefly it had been.

"Hux continues to deny our legitimacy and therefore our right to imprison him and his forces."

Leia snorted. "Threaten to put him in a bikini and sell him to the Hutts."

Myn Neel tucked upwards his tentacles in puzzlement. "You remain possessed of a strange sense of humor, General."

"Its all history, Emp- Is it still Emperor?" Leia asked.

"I am, yes. I have lost my Stormtroopers to _REY_ , as well as those Moffs and officers and civilians who had once been Stormtroopers." _Pity those who depended wholely on Stormtroopers, for their hands are empty and boneless._ "And your forces?"

"Lost those fighters who'd met us here for the battle, and some aides. Anyone else in the Rebellion who might've been vulnerable," Leia said, "wasn't in range."

"And the galaxy's newest great power?"

"She's seeing to her friends."

"As she should," Myn Neel said.

"Benevolent talk from an Emperor," Leia remarked.

"We are, both of us are, object lessons; as much as our predecessors were."

Leia nodded. _And there it is. The perfect opening to a question far more probing than the situation calls for, what with this conversation on the heels of a victory for both of us. A victory that shaved away almost half the remnant population of his Empire._

Myn Neel smoothed his tentacles into calm resignation and said, "You needn't say anything, General. I know what the fate of my Empire must be."

"You going to be okay?" Leia asked.

"I am consoled by the fact that many elements of the old Republic were retained by the Empire. Thus, with this death, all the old faults will be gone." Looking hard at Leia, "I leave to you the task of keeping the new Republic from rebuilding old mistakes and fashioning new ones."

"I won't disappoint."

"Good."

* * *

"Any progress?" Leia asked over their private comm.

"A little," Han said. "He's not a flight risk anymore - or at least he's not one lately."

"Impressive. How'd you manage that one?"

"Told him a few horror stories from the old days. Back when me and Chewie kept clear of governments and anti-government groups. Though I may've dropped in a few mentions of you killing Jabba."

Leia raised an eyebrow.

"I didn't say why or what the circumstances were, much less..." _Outfits._

"I see," Leia said. "So in other words, Ben views us as a step shy of the Dark Side, and wants to make us his apprentices?" If it hadn't been that it was a first chance at being a family again in a long while, it'd've been laughable.

"Pretty much. Be quite a coup, you being The General, and me, well... Okay, you being you. I'll fill you in on everything else that's happening when you get back here."

"Count the days," Leia said.

"Always do," Han said.

* * *

Lying on a hospital bed, Finn slowly opened his eyes, and saw Rey and Poe each sitting on one side of his bed. "Just like in the Order," he said with a relieved smile.  _You're never alone there, your unit is always at your back; they're your friends and your family._

"Then I'll go get them," Poe said, standing up.

"What?" Finn asked, jostled awake. "I meant -"

"Relax," Poe said with a grin. "Your old unit came by earlier - clean bill from Security - and asked to be informed of when you were awake. They said they wanted to thank you, and said something about a guy as stressful as a Hutt and as smiley as...did you catch what they said then?" he asked Rey.

"No," Rey said.

Poe excused himself to them both, and headed out of the room to get the others.

Ducking her head, "I was going to ask you something, Finn, but if you want to reunite with your unit... Perfectly understandable."

"What were you going to ask?" Finn asked, curious.

Rey mumbled:

"Woodu take you do girlbagamnadt?" is what Finn heard her say.

"Rey, I understood most of that, _Stormtrooper training - have to be able to ask basic questions, pose demands, and offer rewards in non-Basic languages._ "What are woodu bagamnadt?"

Rey flushed. Less red, she said, "My _whole_ question was 'would you accept this girl's suit?'" And she waited for an answer.

"Suit?" Finn asked.

"Entry into my family. Friend, spouse, ally, love - in Naboo, they all qualify as what Basic lumps together in the word 'family'...Naboo's where I'm from." _I remember visions of my dad and so much sand with three suns... but Uncle Jar Jar raised me - I learned from him._

"I'd love to join your family, Rey," Finn said. "I can be in two families - I think most normal people are," and he knew Rey understood him to mean 'normal' as in 'non-Stormtrooper.'

She smiled - _beamed_ to use an Alderaan word Finn'd heard somewhere - and returned the waterbowl to Finn's lips.

"Is this part of a ceremony?" Finn asked.

"No," Rey said. "I almost killed you: this is for your dehydration."

Finn drank, thinking she shouldn't worry - _what I did, is what family does for each other, where I'm from._

Rey could feel the feeling Finn was emanating.

After Finn drank some more, Rey put his bowl back down and watched his eyelids start to close. Only now did she run her fingers through her hair, pressing down on key points on her neck - between where scutes would be, along her nape... _You risked your life. This is the least I can do... though it won't confer Force resistance, even a little._ After each pressing, after each run-through, she dipped those fingertips in the bowl's water, then scraped dry the pads of those fingers on the bowl edge. _No matter how powerful I become, I remain Gungan._

Watching, Finn knew _Whatever comes, I'll learn - I welcome it_.


	11. The Mid-Credits Scene

ONE WEEK LATER:

"You wanted to see me?" Leia asked, leaning against the wall, facing the cell where Hux was being kept.

"Its happening, isn't it? You can see the effects along the edges now," Hux said.

"If you'd rather talk to a mystic, just say so. I think that might be more productive for you."

"Wait!" Hux said before she could move to leave. "You Rebels and your Republic were our targets, as were the fallen Empire. But the Empire and those tests against the Republic and you, they were intended to hone the First Order to full readiness."

"Who would've been left?" Leia asked, curious who or what he was going to name. _Was their goal to be ready to fight my brother?_

"None other than the True Enemy. The bulk of their forces lurk in the space between galaxies. But they sent a foray into the galaxy during the Empire's heyday - Darth Vader crushed them, which put off their invasion for later."

"For which I've only your word."

"The Starkiller's ammunition source was intended as a way of denying the True Enemy the fuel they require to wage war and maintain themselves, before we realized it could also be fired at great distances.

"Why wait to tell me this?" Leia inquired.  "Why tell me at all?"

"As I am not sensitive to the Force, I am not privy to the voice of my Supreme Leader," Hux said.  "As such, I could not simply beg his forgiveness or ask for his commands."

"You were trying to rationalize squealing to us and telling everything you know."

"Whatever you need to believe to accept what I am telling you," he said, and maybe he sneered at what he thought was her rationalization or his interpretation of her interpretation of his rationalization.  "Because I will die, be it at your hand or at the hand of the True Enemy."

"So what do you have to lose, eh?" Leia asked rhetorically.  "And what is this 'true enemy' like?"

"Darth Vader did not speak of his encounter to anyone, nor did he enter it on holocrons or databanks."

"Then why should I think they're that scary?"

"Their return is what prompted my New Order to stride forth with tests and attacks before we were at full strength."

"I'll send them a thank-you card," Leia said, while also preparing plans of her own in her mind.

* * *

 

**They Are Coming**


End file.
